Screening Measures on Internet Use Disorders in Children and Adolescents - A Delphi Study

Background

Children and adolescents are especially vulnerable to developing behavioral addictions like Gaming Disorder (GD) or Social Networks Use Disorder (SNUD). Therefore, valid and reliable screening tools are of special importance. At the same time, most measures have been developed in older age groups including adolescents and adults. This Delphi study aimed at a consensus among experts on appropriate tools to screen for GD, SNUD, and Internet Use Disorder in general (IUD) for the age group ranging from 6 to 18 years. 

 

Methods

Based on a priori-defined criteria, international experts with clinical or research expertise on IUD in children and adolescents were invited to fill in an online survey. Participants received comprehensive information on the psychometric properties of the best tools that have emerged in three systematic reviews on GD (n=4 selected tools), SNUD (n=2), and IUD (n=3) in studies on children and adoplsecents. In the fully anonymous survey, experts were asked to rate the appropriateness of the instruments in general and separately for the age groups 6 to 10, 11 to 14, and 15 to 18 years. For each instrument, the same set of questions was given including assessments on reliability, validity, and wording. The study was pre-registered on Open Science Framework (OSF). 

 

Results

From 50 experts, 29 took part in one of two rounds of the Delphi study. The agreement did not increase in round 2 and the process was terminated. General suitability (at least 80% agreement) irrespective of age groups was found for 2 tools regarding clinical purposes and 6 (out of 9) for research purposes. All of the tools were rated as inappropriate (agreement 20% or lower) in 6-to-10-year-olds regarding validity and reliability. Psychometric properties and wording were rated as appropriate for one tool in the age group 11 to 14, and 5 tools in 15-to-18-year-olds.

 

Conclusions

While several screening instruments was regarded as suitable for research purposes in general, agreement was much lower for clinical purposes. In particular, existing tools were found inappropriate for 6-to-10-year-olds while several were rated suitable for the age group 15 to 18. There is a need to develop new tools specifically for young age groups. For the youngest group, external assessment by parents or other caregivers seems to be the most adequate approach.