Psychometric validation of the Turkish gaming disorder test: a measure that evaluates disordered gaming according to the World Health Organization framework

Background: Previous research on gaming disorder (GD) used psychometric tools, which evaluates according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) diagnostic framework. The Gaming Disorder Test (GDT), a standardized measure to assess symptoms and prevalence of GD according to the World Health Organization (WHO) diagnostic framework. The main aim of the current study was to adapt the GDT to Turkish.

Methods: In the present study participants were assessed with the GDT, the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (IGDS9-SF), and the CAGE-Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (CAGE-PIUQ). The factor structure of the scale was tested with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and reliability and validity analyses were conducted.

Results: A sample of 932 Turkish gamers (58.3% male, mean age 23.64 years, SD=5.42) was recruited online. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the unidimensional factor structure of the GDT was satisfactory. The scale was also reliable (i.e., internally consistent with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.879) and showed adequate convergent and criterion-related validity, as indicated by statistically significant positive correlations between average time daily spent playing games (ATDSPG) during last year, IGDS9-SF and CAGE-PIUQ scores. By applying the International Classification of Diseases 11th edition (ICD-11) threshold for diagnosing GD (e.g., meeting all four criteria by answering them either with ‘often’ [4] or ‘very often’ [5]), it was found that the prevalence of GD is 1.9% (n = 18).

Conclusions: Online gaming preference, ATDSPG and probable ADHD predicted the severity of disordered gaming. These findings support the Turkish version of the GDT as a valid and reliable tool for determining the extent of GD related problems among young adults and for the purposes of early GD diagnosis in clinical settings and similar research.