ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2026
Prevalence of internet gaming disorder and measurement invariance of the IGDS9-SF in a high-risk Latin American sample.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
Introduction: The present study examined the psychometric properties of the nine-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF) in five Latin American countries. The study aimed to: (i) estimate internet gaming disorder (IGD) prevalence; (ii) test cross-national measurement invariance in a high-risk sample; and (iii) evaluate construct validity by testing the impact of removing Item 8 (escapism) in this population. Methods: A total of 10,151 Results: The observed rate of probable IGD among recruited players was 12.3%; an exploratory extrapolation to the general population (51.38% regional gamer proportion) yielded 6.32% (95% CI [5.99, 6.65]), with national rates ranging from 4.88% (Chile) to 8.27% (Ecuador). In the probable IGD subsample, metric invariance was supported across countries, whereas scalar and strict invariance were not established. A one-factor model excluding Item 8 and freeing the residual correlation between Items 2 and 3 provided a significantly better structural fit than the original nine-item model. Strict invariance was supported across sex and server. For preferred game mode, metric invariance was supported, but scalar and strict invariance were not established. Conclusions: The IGDS9-SF appears to be a robust instrument for assessing IGD severity among high-risk Latin American samples, supporting cross-national comparisons at the metric level, and more directly across sex and server. However, the findings identified the 'escapism' criterion (Item 8) as psychometrically weak, challenging its inclusion as a core DSM-5 diagnostic symptom. These results highlight the need to reconsider the conceptualization of IGD.
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