Chapter 3

The Psychometric Analyses of the Internet Behaviour Questionnaire for Adolescents

Shi-Jie Zhou, Zhi-hong Tang and Yang Peng

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of an instrument, the Internet Behaviour Questionnaire for Adolescents, developed specifically for assessing the utility, emotions associated with, and skills and attitudes towards Internet usage. Initial items were generated with a total of 70. These items were related to the assessment of the motives, pleasure and satisfaction, attitudes and skills of Internet usage. The instrument was then administered to a sample of 490 college students in the Yongzhou city for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and item reduction. Psychometric properties of the reduced scale were then investigated. The reduced scale was then subjected to further Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with another sample of 606 college students in the Changsha city with test-retest reliability examined. The results obtained from the EFA suggested a 9-factor solution which could be identified as use of the Internet for information seeking, use of the Internet for cyber sexual activities and gaming, use of the Internet for relaxation and entertainment, use of the Internet for cyber relationships, technological mastery, Internet self efficacy, Internet anxiety, and positive evaluation, and negative evaluation. These 9 factors could explain about 52% of the total variance. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the 9 factors ranged from 0.404 to 0.833, and the test-retest correlation coefficients ranged from 0.496 to 0.726. Results obtained from CFA indicated a good fit of a 9-factor structure to the data collected from the confirmatory sample. In conclusion, the Internet Behaviour Questionnaire for Adolescents is a valid and reliable assessment tool for measuring Internet behaviours among adolescents.

Total Pages: 10-17 (8)

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