Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Korean Scale for Internet Addiction (K-Scale) in Japanese high school students

- The 15-item Korean Scale for Internet Addiction (K-Scale) was developed in 2011, but has not been validated in Japanese populations.
- A 13-item second-order two-factor model of K-Scale is the best-fitting model for data from Japanese high school students.
- The two factors revealed are “Disturbance of Adaptation and Life Orientation”, and “Withdrawal and Tolerance”.
- K-Scale shows good internal reliability, as well as convergent validity against self-rated internet addiction and Smartphone Scale for Smartphone Addiction (s-Scale).

The Korean Scale for Internet Addiction (K-Scale) was developed in Korea for assessing addictive internet behaviors. This study aims to adopt K-Scale and examine its psychometric properties in Japanese adolescents. In 2014, 589 (36.0% boys) high school students (Grade 10-12) from Japan completed a survey, including items of Japanese versions of K-Scale and Smartphone Scale for Smartphone Addiction (S-Scale). Model fit indices of the original four-factor structure, three-factor structure obtained from exploratory factor analysis, and improved two-factor structure of K-Scale were computed using confirmatory factor analysis, with internal reliability of included items reported. The convergent validity of K-Scale was tested against self-rated internet addiction, and S-Scale using multiple regression models. The results showed that a second-order two-factor 13-item structure was the most parsimonious model (NFI=0.919, NNFI=0.935, CFI=0.949, and RMSEA=0.05) with good internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.87). The two factors revealed were “Disturbance of Adaptation and Life Orientation” and “Withdrawal and Tolerance”. Moreover, the correlation between internet user classifications defined by K-Scale and self-rating was significant. K-Scale total score was significantly and positively associated with S-Scale total (adjusted R2=0.440) and subscale scores (adjusted R2=0.439). In conclusion, K-Scale is a valid and reliable assessment scale of internet addiction for Japanese high school students after modifications.