Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form

IGDS9-SF

psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

A 9-item scale assessing Internet Gaming Disorder against the nine DSM-5 criteria over the past 12 months.

Items

Response format

5-point frequency scale (1-5)

Version

1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Internet gaming disorder symptoms were measured with the IGDS9-SF (Pontes & Griffiths, 2015), a 9-item DSM-5-aligned scale with good internal consistency (α ≈ .87).

Citing this in a methods section? This scale spans more than one discipline, so the style depends on where you publish — see the APA 7 or Vancouver guides, or compare all six citation styles.

Reliability & validation

Validation population

English-speaking gamers (Pontes & Griffiths, 2015)

Cronbach's α

0.87

Response anchors

Never · Rarely · Sometimes · Often · Very often

Known limitations

Maps to DSM-5's provisional criteria, which remain debated; it is a screening measure rather than a diagnosis, and prevalence estimates vary widely with the scoring method used.

Original citation

Pontes, H. M., Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Measuring DSM-5 Internet Gaming Disorder: Development and validation of a short psychometric scale. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 137-143.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.006

Questions researchers ask

What does the IGDS9-SF measure?

A 9-item scale assessing Internet Gaming Disorder against the nine DSM-5 criteria over the past 12 months.

How many items does the IGDS9-SF have?

The Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF) has 9 items.

Is the IGDS9-SF free to use?

The IGDS9-SF is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the IGDS9-SF reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.87. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the IGDS9-SF, and how do I cite it?

Pontes, H. M., Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Measuring DSM-5 Internet Gaming Disorder: Development and validation of a short psychometric scale. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 137-143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.006

Reference only

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Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.