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Muela I, Navas JF, Barrada JR, López-Guerrero J, Rivero FJ, Brevers D, Perales JC. Operationalization and measurement of compulsivity across video gaming and gambling behavioral domains. BMC Psychol 2023; 11:407. [PMID: 37990335 PMCID: PMC10664636 DOI: 10.1186/s40359-023-01439-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/23/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Compulsivity is the hallmark of addiction progression and, as a construct, has played an important role in unveiling the etiological pathways from learning mechanisms underlying addictive behavior to harms resulting from it. However, a sound use of the compulsivity construct in the field of behavioral addictions has been hindered to date by the lack of consensus regarding its definition and measurement. Here we capitalize on a previous systematic review and expert appraisal to develop a compulsivity scale for candidate behavioral addictions (the Granada Assessment for Cross-domain Compulsivity, GRACC). METHODS The initial scale (GRACC90) consisted of 90 items comprising previously proposed operationalizations of compulsivity, and was validated in two panel samples of individuals regularly engaging in gambling and video gaming, using exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and convergence analyses. RESULTS The GRACC90 scale is unidimensional and structurally invariant across samples, and predicted severity of symptoms, lower quality of life, and negative affect, to similar degrees in the two samples. Additionally, poorer quality of life and negative affect were comparably predicted by compulsivity and by severity of symptoms. A shorter version of the scale (GRACC18) is proposed, based on selecting the 18 items with highest factor loadings. CONCLUSIONS Results support the proposal that core symptoms of behavioral addictions strongly overlap with compulsivity, and peripheral symptoms are not essential for their conceptualization. Further research should clarify the etiology of compulsive behavior, and whether pathways to compulsivity in behavioral addictions could be common or different across domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ismael Muela
- Department of Experimental Psychology; Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, 18071, Campus de Cartuja s/n, Granada, Spain.
| | - Juan F Navas
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Juan R Barrada
- Department of Psychology and Sociology, Faculty of Education, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
| | - José López-Guerrero
- Department of Experimental Psychology; Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, 18071, Campus de Cartuja s/n, Granada, Spain
| | - Francisco J Rivero
- Department of Experimental Psychology; Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, 18071, Campus de Cartuja s/n, Granada, Spain
| | - Damien Brevers
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
| | - José C Perales
- Department of Experimental Psychology; Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), University of Granada, 18071, Campus de Cartuja s/n, Granada, Spain
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Brevers D, King DL, Billieux J. Perspectives on adaptive and maladaptive involvement into esports. Addict Behav 2023; 144:107716. [PMID: 37068367 DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107716] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2023] [Indexed: 04/19/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Damien Brevers
- Louvain Experimental Psychopathology Research Group (LEP), Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium; Institute for Health and Behaviour, Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
| | - Daniel L King
- College of Education, Psychology, & Social Work, Flinders University, Australia
| | - Joël Billieux
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; Centre for Excessive Gambling, Addiction Medicine, Lausanne University Hospitals (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland
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Fournier L, Schimmenti A, Musetti A, Boursier V, Flayelle M, Cataldo I, Starcevic V, Billieux J. Deconstructing the components model of addiction: an illustration through "addictive" use of social media. Addict Behav 2023; 143:107694. [PMID: 36940658 DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107694] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2022] [Revised: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 03/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/17/2023]
Abstract
The components model of addiction posits that all addictions share six components, namely salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, and conflict. This highly influential model has resulted in the development of numerous psychometric instruments that measure addictive behaviors according to these criteria. However, recent research suggests that, in the context of behavioral addictions, certain components constitute peripheral features that do not distinguish non-pathological from pathological behavior. Using "addictive" use of social media as a representative example, we examined this perspective by testing whether these six components actually assess central features of addiction, or whether some of them constitute peripheral features that are not indicative of a disorder. Four independent samples totaling 4,256 participants from the general population completed the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, a six-item psychometric instrument derived from the components model of addiction to assess social media "addiction". By performing structural equation modeling and network analyses, we showed that the six components did not form a unitary construct and, crucially, that some components (i.e., salience, tolerance) were not associated with measures assessing psychopathological symptoms. Taken together, these results suggest that psychometric instruments based on the components model conflate central and peripheral features of addiction when applied to behavioral addictions. This implies that such instruments pathologize involvement in appetitive behaviors. Our findings thus call for renewing the conceptualization and assessment of behavioral addictions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loïs Fournier
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Adriano Schimmenti
- Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, UKE - Kore University of Enna, Cittadella Universitaria, 94100 Enna, Italy.
| | - Alessandro Musetti
- Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma, 43121 Parma, Italy.
| | - Valentina Boursier
- Department of Humanities, University of Naples "Federico II", 80133 Naples, Italy.
| | - Maèva Flayelle
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
| | - Ilaria Cataldo
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Trento, Italy.
| | - Vladan Starcevic
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney Medical School, Nepean Clinical School, University of Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia.
| | - Joël Billieux
- Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland; Center for Excessive Gambling, Addiction Medicine, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), CH-1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Muela I, Navas JF, Ventura-Lucena JM, Perales JC. How to pin a compulsive behavior down: A systematic review and conceptual synthesis of compulsivity-sensitive items in measures of behavioral addiction. Addict Behav 2022; 134:107410. [PMID: 35780595 DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107410] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2022] [Revised: 06/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/11/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Experimental models identify the transition from choice to compulsivity as the main mechanism underlying addiction. In behavioral addictions research, however, the adjective compulsive is used to describe virtually any kind of excessive or dysregulated behavior, which hinders the connection between experimental and clinical models. In this systematic review, we adopted a preliminary definition of compulsive behavior based on previous theoretical work. Subsequently, a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted (a) to identify the validated instruments, currently used in behavioral addictions research, that include items that are sensitive (intendedly or not) to compulsivity, and (b) to categorize those items into differentiable operationalizations of compulsivity. Six operationalizations of compulsivity emerged from item content analysis: 1. Automatic or habitual behavior occurring in absence of conscious instrumental goals; 2. Behavior insensitive to negative consequences despite conscious awareness of them; 3. Overwhelming urge or desire that impels the individual to initiate the activity and jeopardizes control attempts; 4. Bingeing, or inability to stop or interrupt the activity once initiated, resulting in an episode substantially longer or more intense than intended; 5. Attentional capture and cognitive hijacking; and 6. Inflexible rules, stereotyped behaviors, and rituals related to task completion or execution. Subsequently, a list of 15 representative items per operationalization was elaborated for independent assessment and identification of delimitation problems. A high degree of agreement was reached in assessing them as instantiating compulsivity, as well as in their assignment to the corresponding categories. However, many of them were also considered overinclusive, i.e., uncapable of distinguishing compulsivity from value-based momentary choice. To increase their discriminative value, items in future compulsivity scales should be refined to explicitly mention disconnection between behavior and declarative goals. Further research on factorial structure of a pool of items derived from these operational definitions is warranted. Such a factorial structure could be used as an intermediate link between specific behavioral items and explanatory psychobiological, learning, and cognitive mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ismael Muela
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Universidad de Granada, Spain.
| | - Juan F Navas
- Department of Personality, Assessment, and Clinical Psychology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
| | - José M Ventura-Lucena
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Universidad de Granada, Spain
| | - José C Perales
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Mind, Brain and Behavior Research Center (CIMCYC), Universidad de Granada, Spain
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Szabo A, Dinardi JS, Egorov AY. Apples and oranges in the basket of a clinical model for exercise addiction: Rebuttal to Brevers et al. (2022). J Behav Addict 2022; 11:240-242. [PMID: 35895607 PMCID: PMC9295240 DOI: 10.1556/2006.2022.00036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2022] [Revised: 04/24/2022] [Accepted: 04/26/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
This note is a reply to Brevers et al.'s (2022) the commentary. We first explain that the commentary's title is in discord with the theoretical implications of the Expanded Interactional Model of Exercise Addiction (EIMEA; Dinardi et al., 2021). Subsequently, we argue that in contrast to Brevers et al.'s arguments, exercise volume or intensive physical exercise is not even mentioned in the revised EIMEA. Most importantly, we point out that the commentary's reference to assessment scales of exercise addiction is irrelevant, because the EIMEA is intended for idiographic clinical cases rather than nomothetic research. Furthermore, we discuss how the ELMEA cannot account for secondary exercise addiction and motivational incentives due to its individual-specific orientation. Finally, we conclude our reply by highlighting that Brevers et al.'s commentary seems to revolve around nomothetic research assessing a certain level of 'risk' of exercise addiction, while the EIMEA accounts for specific clinically dysfunctional cases presented in the limited number of case studies published in the literature.
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Affiliation(s)
- Attila Szabo
- Institute of Health Promotion and Sport Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary,Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary,Corresponding author. E-mail:
| | - Jacob S Dinardi
- Department of Kinesiology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Alexei Y Egorov
- Department of Psychiatry and Addictions, Faculty of Medicine, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia,Laboratory of Behaviour Neurophysiology and Pathology I.M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia
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