Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology
Research Abstracts

Psychometric properties of the CAGE questionnaire assessment for problematic internet use among university students

1.

Department of Psychiatry, Turgut Ozal University, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara-Turkey

2.

Treatment and Training Center (AMATEM), Bakirkoy Training and Research Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Alcohol and Drug Research, Istanbul-Turkey

3.

Department of Psychiatry, Baltalimani State Hospital for Muskuloskeletal Disorders, Istanbul, Turkey

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2015; 25: Supplement S72-S73
Read: 1337 Downloads: 597 Published: 13 February 2021

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CAGE-Internet questionnaire, adapted from CAGE (a questionnaire for alcohol abuse), to screen individuals for problematic Internet use, among Turkish university students.

Methods: A cross-sectional online self-report survey was conducted at Turgut Ozal University in Ankara. The questionnaire included sections about demographic information, the Addiction Profile Index Internet Addiction Form Screening Version (BAPINT-SV) and CAGEInternet questionnaire. The CAGE is a 4- item, relatively non-confrontational questionnaire for detection of alcoholism. Similarly, CAGE- Internet questionnaire consists of 4items. It takes less than 1 minute to administer, is easy to learn, remember and replicate. The analyses were conducted with 88 participants. A series of factorial structure, convergent validity and internal consistency reliability analyses were conducted.

Results: Adequacy of the sample size was verified using Bartlett’s test of sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measurement of sampling adequacy. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (Chi-Square=85.536, df=6, p<0.001) for the CAGE-Internet questionnaire, and the KMO measure of sampling adequacy was acceptable at 0.597. Only one component on the CAGE-Internet questionnaire reached the criterion of an Eigenvalue greater than one (2.10), and the variance accounted for by this component was 52.53%. The unidimensionality of the scale then was assessed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Estimation of the model produced a good fit (χ2/ df=3.34/2=1.67; root mean square error of approximation RMSEA=0.088, goodness of fit index GFI=0.982, adjusted GFI=0.910, parsimony GFI=0.196, normed fit index NFI=0.962, comparative fit index CFI=0.984, incremental fit index IFI=0.984). All item-component loadings were in the “good” to “excellent” range. Thus, results from the PCA and the CFA suggest that the CAGE-Internet questionnaire assesses a one-dimensional construct. The Pearson product–moment correlation between the CAGE-Internet questionnaire and BAPINT-SV scores was moderate (r=0.62, p<0.001). Internal consistency for the CAGE-Internet questionnaire (coefficient α=0.679) examined by Cronbach’s alpha was also moderate.

Conclusion: These preliminary findings support the CAGE-Internet questionnaire as a reliable and valid problematic Internet usescreening instrument that measures a one-dimensional construct in Turkish university students. Further research is warranted with a higher number of university students, with clinical populations and with high-risk populations such as those in Internet cafes.

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