Abstract
BackgroundThe stigma of internet surfing is a relatively new area of study arising from the popularity of the internet. The Questionnaire on the Internal Stigma of Internet Surfing-9 (QISIS-9) was developed for the Chinese culture, so its suitability for use in other cultural contexts is uncertain. This paper examines the measurement invariance of the QISIS-9 among Sino-Australian undergraduates to verify the cross-cultural measurement invariance of QISIS-9 and promote cross-cultural (nationality) research regarding the internal stigma of internet surfing.MethodsThe Internal Stigma of Internet Surfing-9 (QISIS-9) was used to assess 200 Chinese undergraduates (50% female, Mage = 19.78) and 204 Australian undergraduates (76% female, Mage = 21.10), respectively.ResultsA confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the single-factor model of QISIS-9 is acceptable with both Chinese and Australian undergraduates. However, the factor loading of Item 9, to which a reverse score is assigned, is not ideal for both samples. Thus, the item should be deleted. According to a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA), QISIS-8, the revised version of QISIS-9, meets the strict measurement invariance among the Chinese and Australian participants. The QISIS-8 demonstrated appropriate internal consistency in the scores for both the Chinese and Australian undergraduates.ConclusionThe new QISIS-8 can effectively assess the internal stigma of internet surfing among Chinese and Australian undergraduates, and it provides a frame of reference for further cross-cultural (border) comparisons.
Highlights
Thirty-five percent of the world’s population uses the internet, half of whom are youth
The following steps were taken in the analysis: First, we performed the descriptive statistics of QISIS-9 that Chinese and Australian undergraduates get on the mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis
The scores of Chinese participants on all QISIS-9 items show a positive skewed distribution, indicating that the Chinese undergraduates have a relatively low score on the internal stigma of internet surfing and the scores that Australian undergraduates get on all QISIS-9 items show a normal distribution
Summary
The stigma of internet surfing is a relatively new area of study arising from the popularity of the internet. The Questionnaire on the Internal Stigma of Internet Surfing-9 (QISIS-9) was developed for the Chinese culture, so its suitability for use in other cultural contexts is uncertain. This paper examines the measurement invariance of the QISIS-9 among Sino-Australian undergraduates to verify the cross-cultural measurement invariance of QISIS-9 and promote cross-cultural (nationality) research regarding the internal stigma of internet surfing
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