The construction of the chen internet addiction scale: Elementary school parent version and its analysis of reliability and validity

This research aims to construct the Chen Internet Addiction Scale: Elementary School Parent Version (CIAS-P) and examine its validity and reliability. The construction of CIAS-P is based on the framework of the Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS) and the Chen Internet Addiction Scale-Children Version (CIAS-C), and is modified with other relevant literature and expert opinions. This research mainly utilized pair sampling procedures. Two stages were included in this study. The participants in the first stage were 360 5th-6th -graders and their parents sampled from Taoyuan county and Kaohsiung city. For reliability, the Cronbach’s α value was .83-.91. An exploratory factor analysis showed that CIAS-P revealed three factors: core symptoms, interpersonal and health problems, and time management problems. These three factors accounted for 64.73% of the total explained variance. For validity, there was a moderate correlation between scores on CIAS-P and CIAS-C. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the absolute and parsimony indices were acceptable (RMSEA = .08, GFI = .76, SRMR = .02, IFI = .94, NNFI = .93, NFI = .90, CMIN/df = 2.25, PNFI = .80). The participants in the second stage were 164 1st-4th graders’ parents sampled from Taoyuan county. The results showed that high-risk Internet use was positively correlated with school age, parenting styles, and weekly internet use. In conclusion, the CIAS-P reached acceptable levels of reliability and validity. Discussions and suggestions regarding test application and future research are provided.