Yakut-Addiction Tendency Scale: A Study on Scale Development

Abstract

Addiction is a significant public health problem that leads to numerous social, psychological, emotional, behavioural and physiological issues at individual, societal and global levels. In the effective management of addiction, the development of valid and reliable assessment tools to identify individuals’ predispositions to addiction at an early stage is of great importance. The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable scale for identifying individuals’ addiction tendencies. In the study, data were collected by converting the draft scale into an online questionnaire and distributing it to participants via social media platforms. During the scale development process, a comprehensive literature review was conducted, expert opinions were obtained, and subsequently an item pool was created, followed by factor analysis. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) value of the scale was calculated as .90, and the Bartlett’s test value was found to be χ²(190) = 3559.33, with the chi-square result being statistically significant (p < .001). As a result of the analyses, four factors related to addiction were identified and formulated as follows: psychological addiction tendency (α = .85), behavioral addiction tendency (α = .81), physiological addiction tendency (α = .85), and tendency to seek approval (α = .75). The scale was found to explain 60.04% of the total variance, with factor loadings of the items ranging between .46 and .88. The Cronbach alfa internal consistency coefficient of the 20-item scale was calculated as .89. In this respect, it can be stated that the scale is a useful and reliable measurement tool that can be used in screening studies aimed at determining the general risk levels of individuals' addictive behaviours.