Brief Description:
* Caplan (2002)
* Based on Davis's (2001) theoretical definition of Problem Internet Use, which focuses on cognitions and behaviors relating to Internet use and affect psychosocial health, producing negative consequences.
* 7 Factors:
- Mood alteration (using the Internet to change one's mood)
- Social benefits (Perceived positive social benefits from online community)
- Negative outcomes (Problem dealing with friends/family due to Internet use)
- Compulsive use (Inability to control use, guilty feelings)
- Excessive time online (Losing track of time when using the Internet)
- Withdrawal (Difficulty spending time away from the Internet)
- Social control (A sense of social control with interacting with others online)
Versions:
* Chinese
* English
Type of Measure:
* Self-completed
* Twenty-nine items
* Five-point Likert Scale
Target Population:
* Adult
Scoring:
* 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree
Psychometrics:
Source Reference: Caplan (2002): 386 undergraduate university students.
* Reliability: Cronbach's alpha = 0.78 to 0.85
* Validity: Construct (all subscales correlate significantly with measure of psychosocial well-being)
* Seven factors: 1) Mood alteration, 2) Social benefits, 3) Negative outcomes, 4) Compulsive use, 5) Excessive time online, 6) Withdrawal, 7) Social control
Utility for Prevalence Surveys:
* Untested but potentially good
Research Applicability:
* Potentially good
Copyright, Cost, and Source Issues:
* Public domain (no cost): available in the source reference
Source References:
Caplan, S. E. (2002). Problematic Internet use and psychosocial well-being: Development of a theory-based cognitive-behavioral measurement instrument. Computers in Human Behavior,18, 553-575.
* Theoretically based
Weaknesses:
* More work on the validity of the scale is needed
* No cut-offs