Presenting at the 11th International Conference on Behavioral Addictions in Istanbul

Last month, I presented my research at the 11th International Conference on Behavioral Addictions (ICBA), in Istanbul, Turkey. Organised by the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Addictions (ISSBA) in collaboration with the Turkish Green Crescent Society, the conference brought together more than 400 researchers, clinicians, and health professionals from around the world.

My Presentation

I presented findings from my PhD research titled “The Psychometric Properties of the International Work Addiction Scale (IWAS) Using CTT and IRT in a Nationally Representative UK Sample.”

The talk examined how well the IWAS performs as a measurement tool for work addiction, drawing on both Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) to evaluate the scale’s reliability and validity in a large, nationally representative UK sample. As work addiction gains increasing recognition as a behavioural addiction in its own right, having a robust, well-validated measurement tool matters for research consistency, clinical screening, and comparing findings across countries and populations.

Being Part of a Growing Field

One of the highlights of the conference was being able to engage with researchers working across the wider field of behavioural addictions, including gambling, gaming, problematic internet and social media use, compulsive shopping, binge-watching, and other emerging areas.

Although my own research focuses on work addiction, many of the questions being explored across these different behavioural addictions are surprisingly interconnected. Researchers are grappling with similar issues around conceptualisation, measurement, comorbidity, risk factors, and the relationship between addictive behaviours and mental health and wellbeing.

Attending presentations outside my own area also gave me a broader perspective on the field. Hearing researchers discuss their methods, debates, and unanswered questions in person brought out nuances that can be difficult to capture in published papers alone.

Looking Ahead

The conference was also a valuable opportunity to meet researchers working in behavioural addictions and to exchange ideas about current and future research. I had several interesting conversations about potential collaborations, and I hope that some of these discussions will develop into future projects.

As I move into the final year of my PhD, it was particularly useful to step back from my own research and think about where it fits within the wider behavioural addictions field. My PhD has focused on conceptualising, measuring, and predicting work addiction, and the conference reinforced for me the importance of developing rigorous approaches to measurement while continuing to understand how behavioural addictions relate to health and wellbeing.

I am looking forward to the next stage of the PhD and to seeing where these research connections lead. Hopefully, I will be back at ICBA for the 12th International Conference on Behavioral Addictions in Banff in 2027.

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