Mogeda El Sayed El Keshky ^1* Tmader Alballa ²

• ¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, King Abdulaziz University, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• ² Department of Mathematics, College of Sciences, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

1 Introduction Online videogames are a part of life for many people worldwide. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimated 2.7 billion gamers globally as of 2020 (International Trade Administration, n.d.). Spending time playing games on the internet can be entertaining, however, evidence suggests that videogames are one of the most addicting technologies (Sherer, 2023). Excessive time playing videogames may result in, or be an indication of, a behavioral addiction known as internet gaming disorder (IGD). The rates of IGD are likely range from 5% and 8% in North America (Desai et al., 2010; Gentile, 2009), 0.2% and 12% in Europe (Festl et al., 2013; Wittek et al., 2016), and 8% and 46% in Asia (Gentile et al., 2011; Wan & Chiou, 2006). These differences may result from differences in assessments and conceptualizations of this disorder (Sigerson et al., 2017). Neuroimaging studies have shown similarities between IGD and other types of addiction, particularly those that are substance-related (Kuss & Griffiths, 2012). Numerous negative psychosocial consequences have been associated with IGD, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Walther et al., 2012), aggressive behaviors (Gitter et al., 2013, Mehroof & Griffiths, 2010) and violent tendencies (G.-N. Ke et al., 2022), poor impulse control (Ding et al., 2014), low academic performance (Jackson et al., 2011), loneliness (Lemmens et al., 2011), anxiety and depression (Tortolero et al., 2014), reduced life satisfaction (Bargeron & Hormes, 2017), reduced psychological well-being (J. Kim et al., 2009), maladaptive coping behaviors (Batthyány et al., 2009), as well as delinquency and antisocial behaviors (Delisi et al., 2012). The APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) recognizes IGD as a disorder in the section recommending conditions requiring further research (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The DSM-5 proposes nine criteria for diagnosing IGD: preoccupation with gaming; withdrawal symptoms like sadness, anxiety, and irritability when it is not possible to play; tolerance, that is, wanting to spend more time gaming to quench the desire to play; being unable to lessen or quit playing; lost enthusiasm for previously pleasurable activities; continued gaming in spite of other difficulties; deception of others about time involved in gaming; assuaging negative moods by gaming; and gaming endangering or causing the loss of a job or relationship. IGD can be diagnosed when a minimum of five of these criteria persist for 12 months (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and is specified as the “persistent and recurrent use of the internet to engage in games, often with other players, leading to impairment or clinically significant distress” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 795). This definition relates to online gaming, but the IGD criteria also allow for non-internet videogames (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Consequently, to facilitate research and diagnosis measures to assess IGD, such as the Internet Disorder Scale, Short Form (IGDS-SF9), were developed (Pontes & Griffiths, 2015). The IGDS-SF9 comprises nine items based on the DSM-5 IGD criteria and presents several advantages. Its nine items address all nine DSM-5 diagnostic criteria (Pontes & Griffiths, 2015), for example, and studies have indicated that it is a robust one-dimensional scale with excellent psychometric properties (Pontes et al., 2017; Stavropoulos et al., 2018). It is thus attractive for researchers and clinical practitioners to use. Consequently, IGDS-SF9 has been adapted for use in many cultures. The scale has been validated in Hong-Kong (Yam et al., 2018), Taiwan (Leung et al., 2020), Albania (Palo et al., 2018), U.K. (Palo et al., 2019), USA (Palo et al., 2019), Italy (Palo et al., 2019), Iran (Wu et al., 2017), Poland (Schivinski et al., 2018), Germany (Montag et al., 2019), Spain (Beranuy et al., 2020), Korea (Kim & Ko, 2020), Malaysia (T’ng & Pau, 2020), Slovenia (Pontes et al., 2016), and Turkey (Arıcak et al., 2018). Validation of IGDS-SF9 in an Arabic context would contribute to its cross-cultural validation, given the importance of considering cross-cultural perspectives (Petry et al. 2014). To date, only one validation of an Arabic version of the scale has been carried out (Baiumy et al., 2018); however, the study presented several limitations. This research did not address factor structure, measurement invariance, concurrent, convergent, and criterion validity or item theory analysis. Therefore, this study aims to enhance the literature and practice by developing and then investigating the psychometric properties of an IGDS-SF9 Arabic version in a study using a Saudi Arabian student sample.