Patricia H. Kloosterman

Examining the structure of the Internet Addiction Test in adolescents: A bifactor approach

Youngs (1998a) Internet Addiction Test (IAT) is one of the most commonly used measures of problematic Internet use. Although the instrument is being increasingly applied in research with adolescents, its measurement structure has not been systematically evaluated with pre-adult respondents. Because the results of previous factor-analytic studies with adults have been highly inconsistent, the present study applied both the traditional (simple-structure) and novel (bifactor) modeling approaches to derive the most optimal measurement structure of the IAT for adolescents. The results of exploratory and confirmatory analyses in a large Canadian sample of high-school students (N=1948) converged on a bifactor model with a dominant global IA factor and two distinct sub-dimensions, each associated with a unique gender and problem behaviour profile. The discussion focuses on the implications of this bifactor structure for scale scoring and substantive theory on the nature and sources of individual differences in Internet addiction.

Brief Report: Do You See What I See? The Perception of Bullying in Male Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Although there is evidence to suggest that adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty interpreting complex social situations, little is known about their understanding of bullying. Given the high rates of victimization in this population, it is important to investigate how adolescents with ASD comprehend bullying. Male adolescents with ASD and IQ-matched typically-developing (TD) controls ( M age  = 14.62, SD  = 1.91) watched six videos portraying bullying scenarios and were interviewed after each video. The interviews were coded for the participants’ understanding of the bullying scenarios. Results indicated that adolescents with ASD had significantly lower bullying understanding scores than TD adolescents. These novel findings suggest that male adolescents with ASD understand bullying differently than their TD peers. Implications for experiences with victimization are discussed.