The Gaming Disorder Test (GDT)
The GDT (Pontes et al., 2021) is the first brief standardized psychometric tool to assess Gaming Disorder (GD) in light of the diagnostic criteria developed by World Health Organization in the latest beta draft revision of the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11).
The GDT is a unidimensional tool comprising a total of 4 items measuring the clinical criteria for GD as in the ICD-11. The GDT was originally developed in a cross-cultural study including a large sample of Chinese (47% male, mean age 19.22 years, SD = 1.57) and British gamers (49.4% male, mean age 26.74 years, SD = 7.88) recruited online.
The GDT has been extensively investigated at the psychometric level across several studies, with the results being satisfactory at several psychometric levels, such as:
Construct validity: (i) factorial validity; (ii) nomological validity, (iii) convergent validity; (iv) discriminant validity; and (v) concurrent validity. The GDT has also been shown to be reliable according to several indicators of internal consistency. The original study provides further information about the validity of the scale.
A study by Wang and Cheng (2020) reported that the GDT presents with adequate reliability, structural validity, and criterion validity. In terms of measurement invariance, the GDT showed scalar invariance for gender, age, and employment status.
A review study conducted by Karhulahti and colleagues (2021) reported that of all available assessment tools for GD, the GDT was the only tool to show the highest level of validity in the operationalization of the assessment criteria for GD.
A meta-analysis study conducted by Jahrami and colleagues (2024) synthesized the existing psychometric data regarding the GDT globally by reviewing a total of 17 studies in 14 languages. The authors concluded that there is robust evidence supporting the GDT’s internal consistency across diverse populations and that the test has strong psychometric properties without risk of bias across all reviewed studies.
The GDT can be used in time-limited research on GD and future studies using clinical samples, longitudinal, and cross-cultural designs are necessary to consolidate the initial findings obtained in the original study. Languages in which the test has been developed so far include:
Bengali 🇧🇩: Download here
Chinese 🇨🇳: Download here
English 🇬🇧: Download here
Italian 🇮🇹: Download here
Persian 🇮🇷: Contact the author
Spanish 🇪🇸: Download here
Swedish 🇸🇪: Download here
Turkish 🇹🇷: Download here
