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.

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 Study 1 / Chinese Study 2: Download here

• English: Download here

• German: Download here

• Italian: Download here

• Malay: Download here

• Polish: Download here

• Slovak: Download here

• Spanish (European): Download here

• Swedish: Download here

• Turkish Study 1 / Turkish Study 2: Download here

If you wish to further develop and validate the GDT in another language, please do get in touch with me via email or any of my social media accounts.