Psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of the Assessment of Criteria for Specific Internet-use Disorders (ACSID-11)

Background. The importance of a comprehensive screening across different technological addictions has been emphasized since some evidence suggests that they often occur together. Recently, Müller and colleagues (2022) have developed an economic measure of specific Internet-use disorders based on ICD-11 criteria for gaming disorder in order to study the frequency and intensity of various technological addictions with the same items and improve comparability. The present study aims to explore psychometric characteristics of the Italian version of the ACSID-11. Method. To date, 988 individuals (F = 80.4%; Mage = 43.14, SD = 13.26) completed online the ACSID-11 and measures to assess criterion validity. Seven hundred and eighty participants (F = 79.5%; Mage = 42.78, SD = 13.26) also completed measures to assess anxiety, depression, life satisfaction and dissociation. Results. Prevalence of online engagement was as follows: 98.5% social media, 89.4% shopping, 37.7% gaming, 24.1% pornography, 5.8% gambling. Due to the highest prevalence, we focused on the results regarding social networking sites (SNSs) use, gaming and shopping. For both problematic SNSs use and shopping, the Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the proposed four-factor solution (i.e., Impaired Control, Increased Priority, Continuation/Escalation, and Functional Impairment), which showed a superior fit compared to the unidimensional solution. Moreover, we found moderate-to-large correlations with the criterion variables. Further attention is needed for gaming since the fit indices do not indicate a good fit between the models and the data. Conclusions. The Italian version of the ACSID-11 may be a useful instrument for studying technological addictions with the same items and improving comparability.