An evaluation of the factor structure of the Problem Gambling Severity Index

Abstract

The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) was designed to assess gambling problems in community samples. It has 12 items, nine of which are scored to determine problem gambling level. Although recent studies have evaluated the PGSI's psychometric properties, these have not used methods best suited for this task. The present study used both confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and item response theory (IRT) modelling to assess these properties for a college student sample (N = 366). The scale was unidimensional and had varying item factor loadings that were identical for male and female participants. The latent gambling problem characteristic obtained from the 12-item set was more strongly cor..