PSYCHOMETRIC PROPRIETIES OF THE SPANISH VERSION OF THE INTERNET ADDICTION TEST IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Abstract: Internet addiction is characterized by the need to be online all the time, lack of initiative to perform other activities, especially in college students has increased access to it, they surf for several hours on websites and entertainment applications, this leads to the population being exposed to suffer from internet addiction, which can bring problems at physical, psychological and social level. The main objective of the study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in university students. An instrumental, cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational design was used. A total of 468 students were evaluated, 70.3% were women and 29.7% were men. The results indicate that the IAT in its Spanish version has a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.915 and is divided into three factors (interference in the emotional state due to excessive use of the Internet, affectation in daily performance and loss of control of connection time). It is concluded that it is a valid and reliable instrument, since it presents adequate psychometric properties to be applied in the Ecuadorian context. Males present greater addition to the Internet compared to females.