Multiple addictive behaviors in young adults: Student norms for the Shorter PROMIS Questionnaire

The Shorter PROMIS Questionnaire (SPQ; Christo, Jones, Haylett, Stephenson, Lefever & Lefever, 2003) is a multidimensional self report that measures 16 addictive behaviors. This study examined the psychometric properties of the SPQ and collected normative data from 948 students at two Canadian universities. Factor analysis confirmed the existence of two categories of addictive behavior, which Haylett and her colleagues (2004) labelled hedonistic and nurturant. The hedonistic categories included behaviors such as the use of prescription drugs, gambling, caffeine, illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco and compulsive sex. The nurturant group included behaviors such as compulsive helping, work, relationships, shopping, disordered eating and exercise. Men (N = 250) scored higher than women on dominant relationships, exercise, gambling, illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco and sex. Women (N = 698) scored higher on compulsive shopping, food binging and starving. These results suggest that the SPQ may be a useful index of multiple addictive behaviors in college-age people.