Modified version of the short Internet Addiction Test (s-IAT–SNS). The tendency of pathological use of SNS as a specific form of IA was assessed with the short Internet Addiction Test (s-IAT; Pawlikowski, Altstötter-Gleich & Brand, 2013 ), modified for Internet communication sites respectively SNS. The s-IAT–SNS consists of twelve items and has to be answered on a five-point Likert scale from 1 (= never) to 5 (= very often). The s-IAT–SNS comprises two six-item factors:
loss of control/time management and
craving/social problems. Internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) of the s-IAT–SNS was good:
α = .880 (loss of control/time management
α = .841, craving/social problems
α = .801).
Brief Symptom Inventory – subscales depression and interpersonal sensitivity. Psychological-psychiatric symptoms of depression and interpersonal sensitivity were assessed by the German version (Franke, 2000 ) of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Boulet & Boss, 1991 ; Derogatis, 1993 ). We used the subscale interpersonal sensitivity to measure social anxiety. This subscale represents difficulties and problems in social situations like feeling uncomfortable with other persons. We did not use the subscale anxiety because this “only” measures feelings of anxiety in general, but not focused on social situations. The participants rated the ten items of the subscales on a five-point Likert scale from 0 (= not at all) to 4 (= extremely). The subscale
interpersonal sensitivity had four items and the internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach’s
a = .773). The subscale
depression consists of six items and had a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s
a = .808).
Internet Use Expectancies Scale (IUES). To assess Internet use expectancies we used a newly developed eight-item questionnaire comprising two subscales. The first scale reflects
positive reinforcement, the second scale describes
avoidance expectancies. All items were answered on a six-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (= completely disagree) to 6 (= totally agree). Both scales had a good reliability (Cronbach’s α; positive reinforcement:
α = .829, avoidance expectancies:
α = .785, overall:
α = .843) (Brand, Laier et al., 2014 (
link)).
Internet Literacy Questionnaire (ILQ). To assess Internet literacy we used a newly developed questionnaire (Stodt, Wegmann & Brand, unpublished). The scale asks for participants’ different competencies in dealing with the Internet. The literacies are divided into four subscales (technical expertise, production and interaction, reflection and critical analysis, and self-regulation).
Production and interaction describes the use of the Internet as a communication platform and the consideration of online attributes conventions. The subscale
self-regulation measures the self-assessment of the participants to manage online behavior.
The scale consists of 24 items (technical expertise: 6 items, production and interaction: 5 items, reflection and critical analysis: 7 items, self-regulation: 6 items). The answers were given on a six-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (= strongly disagree) to 5 (= totally agree). The internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) was acceptable:
production and interaction: α = .741,
self-regulation: α = .728.
Wegmann E., Stodt B, & Brand M. (2015). Addictive use of social networking sites can be explained by the interaction of Internet use expectancies, Internet literacy, and psychopathological symptoms. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 4(3), 155-162.
