Assessment of internet addiction among Filipino adolescents from Rizal and Laguna provinces: An item response theory approach

The problematic use of the Internet has become a widespread concern due to its detrimental effects to a person\u27s well-being. The purpose of the current investigation is to examine the psychometric properties of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) for assessing the relationship between excessive Internet use of the Internet and its manifestations through a representative sample of Filipino adolescents from Rizal and Laguna provinces. This study adapted an Item Response Theory Graded Response Modeling that assessed the reliability of the test at the item and test levels. Analyses of the data revealed that the test is useful in classifying individuals into low, moderate, or high Internet addiction severity levels with prevalence of 10.06%, 83.73%, and 6.21%, respectively. It was also found that the items measured more Internet addiction dimension and with more precision 1SD around the mean. The items which best characterize each severity level were distinguished