The Problematic Behaviour Scale (PBS-5): A brief measure for the population-level screening of non-substance-bound addictive behaviours and Swiss national prevalence rates

Mader, Sebastian and Marmet, Simon (2026) The Problematic Behaviour Scale (PBS-5): A brief measure for the population-level screening of non-substance-bound addictive behaviours and Swiss national prevalence rates. JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL ADDICTIONS, 15 (1). pp. 209-229. ISSN 2062-5871

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Abstract

Background and aims The Assessment of Criteria for Specific Internet-use Disorders (ACSID-11; Müller et al. 2022) offers a promising instrument to screen addictive disorders in population-wide surveys based on ICD-11 criteria. We evaluated this scale in the Swiss context and propose the shorter Problematic Behaviour Scale (PBS-5). Methods We included ACSID-11 in the Swiss survey “Health and Lifestyle” (SHL) 2023 (n = 5,995) in German, French and Italian for social media use, shopping, gaming, gambling, and pornography use. We assessed psychometric characteristics of PBS-5. Classification quality and cut-off values of PBS-5 for prevalences of problematic behaviour were determined by multiple Receiver Operator Characteristic regressions of the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) on PBS-5. Including PBS-5 and PHQ-4 in the SHL 2025 (n = 5,818) allowed to investigate trends and the intertemporal stability of the cut-off values. Results PBS-5 showed a one-dimensional factorial structure, and excellent internal consistency. External validity and classification quality was limited. Prevalence rates of problematic behaviours as a percentage of regular users in Switzerland in 2025 were: social media use: 27.7%, shopping: 13.6%, gaming: 21.0%, gambling: 2.5%, pornography use: 22.2%. Since 2023, these prevalences have increased except for gambling. Problematic social media use peaked among young women and gaming among young men. Problematic gaming, and pornography use were more frequent among men. Problematic shopping was observed more frequently among subjects with low education. Discussion and conclusions PBS-5 is a promising brief screening tool for addictive behaviours. Further validation is recommended.

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