Development and Validation of Test for Instagram Addiction (TIA)

Abstract

The study deals with the development and validation of a test for Instagram addiction for adolescents and adults.  Now a days there is a drastic shift in the usage of Facebook to Instagram, the authors planned to develop and validate a new test for Instagram addiction. A total of 327 individuals ranging from students in various disciplines to adults working in various fields was selected through simple random sampling and considered for the present investigation. The authors in consultation with the experts formulated an inventory having 34 statements pertaining to Instagram addiction among adolescents and adults. After initial face validation, the test was administered to more than 400 individuals, only 327 filled inventories were considered for development of TIA, after filtering the inventories for completeness and erratic answering. Later, the data were subjected to factor analysis and 6 components were derived through Factor analysis, which included components like Lack of control, Disengagement, Escapism, Health and interpersonal troubles, Excessive use and Obsession. The total variance explained in this inventory was 59.48%. To find out the reliability, the Cronbach’s reliability test was done and the alpha value obtained for the total inventory was 0.931 and for various components varied from 0.680 to 0.863. Further, when item to total scores correlations were performed; all the correlation coefficients obtained through Pearson’s product moment correlation techniques were found to be highly significant, indicating that the TIA has high reliability and validity.  Even the correlation coefficients obtained between components were found to be highly significant.