Studyholism in the United States and Italy

Studyholism (or study obsession) is a construct Loscalzo and Giannini (2017) defined as a new potential clinical condition of problematic overstudying. Two multidimensional scales have been developed to measure this construct: the Studyholism Inventory (SI-10) and the Studyholism Inventory-Extended Version (SI-15). The current study analyzes the psychometric properties of these two instruments among U.S. college students. We also examined measurement invariance of the items based on comparisons between Western and Southern U.S. samples, and between Italian and U.S. students. The analyses generally supported the factor structure and other psychometric properties of the SI-10 and SI-15. Also, we found metric and scalar measurement invariance between the two U.S. samples for the SI-10, while analyses supported only metric invariance for the SI-15. Regarding the invariance between Italy and the U.S., we found support for SI-15 metric invariance (but not for the SI-10). Hence, we suggest that future studies further investigate this construct and context-specific factors across countries (and U.S. states) that may play a role in its measurement and interpretation. Finally, for potential screening purposes, we derived cutoff scores for the U.S. SI-10 to identify high/low combinations of Studyholism and Study Engagement. Those results were consistent with scores based on Italian samples. In conclusion, this study introduces the U.S. validation of the two instruments currently available for measuring Studyholism, paving the way for further studies to highlight potential differences between countries with different cultures or educational systems