Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Digital Game Addiction Scale

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Digital Game Addiction Scale (DGAS-7) that was developed to explore the problematic gaming behavior of adolescents. Methods: The samples for this methodological study comprised 95 adolescents in the 9(th), 10(th), and 11(th) grades of a high school in Istanbul who had played/continued to play computer/video games and were willing to participate in the study. The DGAS-7 first developed by Lemmens et al. is a 5-item Likert type, single-dimension scale made up of 7 questions. For its Turkish version, the scale was first translated and back-translated, and then submitted to an expert to check content validity. An evaluation of the reliability of the scale was made using item-total correlation, internal consistency (Cronbach'salpha) coefficient and test-retest correlation methods. The content validity index and concurrent validity were evaluated to assess validity, and explanatory factor analysis (AFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate construct validity. Results: The mean age of the adolescents was 16.61 +/- 0.99 years and 69% were males. The Content Validity Index for the DGAS-7 was 0.92, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.72 and item-total correlation ranged between 0.52 and 0.76. The correlation for the test-retest at three weeks was 0.80. In the explanatory factor analysis, 56.96% of the total variance on the one-dimensional scale was explained and factor loads ranged between 0.52-0.77. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed values of chi(2)=14.22, p=0.37, sd=14, RMSEA=0.012, AGFI=0.92, CFI=0.99, GFI=0.96, and SRMR=0.06, showing that the model was a good fit. Discussion/Conclusion: The results of the validity and reliability testing of the Turkish version of the DGAS-7 were found to be similar to the findings of the original scale. These results show that the Turkish version may be used as a valid and reliable tool in determining problem-causing digital gaming behavior among adolescents and also for purposes of early diagnosis and in other relevant research. It might be recommended that exploring the validity and reliability of the scale is repeated in different groups of subjects of similar ages and that the scale is used in prevalence studies.