Is Craving a Central Criterion for Diagnosing a Behavioral Addiction?

This study is a cross-sectional observational study designed to evaluate the diagnostic criteria for behavioral addictions (gambling, online video game disorder, screen addiction, food addiction, and pathological use of sex and/or pornography). The main objective of this project is to explore the value of the "craving" criterion in the diagnosis of behavioral addictions. Individuals reporting regular engagement in these different behaviors will be recruited through broad communication campaigns, with the aim of including participants across different levels of severity and thereby better assessing the importance of craving as a diagnostic criterion. Value of the craving criteria will be evaluated based on: 1. its parameters derived from a two-parameter Item Response Theory (IRT) model, namely discrimination (a; the item's ability to distinguish between severity levels) and difficulty (b; the severity level at which the item has a high probability of being endorsed), considered relevant when the values exceed significant thresholds (discrimination \> 1 and difficulty within a specific range on the severity continuum); 2. its centrality within the network of criteria, as measured by four indices (strength, proximity, interdependence, and expected influence) from network analysis (NA).