Psychometric Evaluation of the English Language Version of the Instagram Addiction Scale-15 Among English-Speaking Indian Adults

Abstract

Instagram’s popularity has raised concern about its problematic use. However, no validated scales assessing Instagram addiction exist in the Indian context. The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the 15-item Instagram Addiction Scale (IAS-15) among Indian adults. In total, 301 participants (Mage= 22.89 years) were recruited using a convenience sampling technique. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the two components of the IAS-15, social effect and compulsion, had suitable factor loadings: CMIN/DF (chi-square/degree of freedom) = 2.531, GFI (goodness of fit index) = 0.903, IFI (incremental fit index) = 0.965, TLI (Tucker-Lewis index) = 0.958, CFI (comparative fit index) = 0.965, and RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation) = 0.071. This was further improved by drawing covariances between theoretically linked items (CMIN/DF = 2.273, GFI = 0.916, IFI = 0.972, TLI = 0.965, CFI = 0.971, and RMSEA = 0.065). Strong convergent validity with a significant and positive correlation with social media addiction (r = 0.899), and strong concurrent validity with depression (r = 0.778), anxiety (r = 0.777), stress (r = 0.815), and negative correlations with self-esteem (r = −0.635) were observed. The IAS-15 demonstrated excellent internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha (α) and McDonald’s omega (ω) coefficients of reliability for the overall scale (α = 0.962 and ω = 0.963) and its two subscales, social effect (α = 0.941 and ω = 0.942) and compulsion (α = 0.922 and ω = 0.922). Findings confirm that the IAS-15 is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing Instagram addiction among Indian adults.