Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Curry, Toni M

Titel

What’s on Your Mind?: Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of the Social Media Anxiety Inventory in an Undergraduate Student Sample

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The present study examined the psychometric properties of a new, multidimensional measure of social media-based social anxiety, the Social Media Anxiety Inventory (SMAI), in a sample of 511 college students. A 17-item final draft of the SMAI was administered online to the undergraduate students. Once the data were collected, the SMAI was scaled with half of the total sample, resulting in a 16-item measure. Then single-group confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were performed to determine whether a one-factor model or a two-factor model provided the better fitting model for the measure. In addition, a multi-group CFA was conducted to determine whether the SMAI construct was equivalent across gender. Latent mean analyses were also performed to explore gender differences on the SMAI. Composite reliability estimates were computed to examine the internal consistency of the scales. Finally, convergent and discriminant validity were examined by computing Pearson r correlations between the SMAI scores and scores of social anxiety, general anxiety, depression, and stress measures. The results of these analyses provided support for a two-factor structure (Worry and Avoidance). A single-group CFA with half of the total sample found the two-factor model to have an adequate model fit. However, the single group CFAs conducted with the male and female subgroups found mediocre model fit for the two-factor structure. Latent reliabilities indicated adequate internal consistency reliability on both the SMAI Worry and SMAI Avoidance scales. Results of tests of factorial invariance supported strong factorial invariance across gender. Latent means comparisons indicated that females reported higher levels of both worry and avoidance in comparison to males. Lastly, results indicated evidence for the convergent validity of the SMAI scores. However, adequate evidence of discriminant validity was not found in the current study. Limitations, future research directions, and practical implications are considered.