Development And Application Of Internet Attitude Scale

Objects: 1. To develop a proper Internet Attitude Scale, and examine its reliability and validity. 2. To explore the internet-related attitude's characteristics of university students, and to compare the difference between the addicted group and non-addicted groupMethods: On the basis of reviewing the previous researches about the internet attitude, this study used university students for subjects through open-ended interviews, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to develop the Internet Attitude Scale (IAS) . The IAS was later administered to a group of 568 university students. The reliability of the IAS was examined by analysing Cronbach's coefficient, split-half coefficient and test-retest correlation cofficient of the items, the validity of the IAS( including content validity, structure validity and criterion-related validity) was also evaluated. The same groups were tested in different sexes, grades, subjects of students' internet attitude using multivariate analysis of variance, also compared the differences between the addicted group and non-addicted group in the of internet attitude.Results: The IAS was composed of 46 items which divided into 5 factors: percieved usefulness, internet self-efficacy, internet liking, intenet anxiety and internet behavioral intention. Reliability testing showed that the internal consistency coefficient were between 0.75 and 0.88, the split-half coefficient of each factor were between 0.75 and 0.90, test-retest reliability for the factors were between 0.60 and 0.85. The 5 factors of the exploratory factor analysis could explain 45.32 percent of the whole variability; and the results of confirmatory factor analysis(x~2=2735.171, df=979,x~2/df=2.794, RMAEA=0.056, CFI=0.903, NNFI=0.895) also support the theoretical structure of this scale. The test of criterion validity showed that the correlation coefficient between internet liking, internet behavioral intention and internet-related behavior were between 0.14 and 0.47 (PO.001), internet anxiety and internet-related behavair were significantly negative correlation; the correlation coefficient between internet liking, internet anxiety, internet behavioral intention and the addiction-related behavior were between 0.21 and 0.62 (P<0.001).2. A examination about mean differrences among 5 factors was administed, the results showed that, students scored highest on the perceived usefulness, and followed by internet self-efficacy, internet behaviral intention, internet liking and internet anxity. The results of the multivariate factor analysis of variance were that the main effect of the subjects was not significant; the main effect of gender on internet liking and internet behaviral intention were significant. (F(1,479) =15.98, P<0.001; F(1,479)=15.83, P<0.001) ; the main effect of grades on the internet anxity and internet self-efficacy were significant (F (2,478)=11.35, P<0.001; F(2,478)=6.29, P<0.001) . Internet addiction or not as dependent variances, the five factors of internet attitude as independent variances, the results of the multivariate factor analysis of variance were that, the two groups were significantly diffrent in internet liking, internet anxity and internet behavioral intention (F(l,448)=46.35, P<0.001; F(1,448)=30.10, P<0.001; F(1,448)=73.05, P<0.001) .Conclusion: 1. Internet Attitude Scale met with the requirement of psychometrics with the good degree of discrimination. Its reliability achieved the demand of psychometrics. The validity was good and tally with the design plan. It could be used as the tool to assess the internet attitude of Chinese university students.2. Students had a positive attitude; gender differences did not exist in perceived usefulness, internet self-efficacy and internet anxiety, males scored higher than females on the factors of internet liking and internet behavoral intention; different grades had no significantly different in perceived usefulness, internet liking and intenet behavioral intention, but the freshmen's score was significantly lower than sophomres and graduates on internet self-efficacy. Campared with non-addicted students, the addicted group had significantly higher scores in internet liking, internet anxiety and internet behavioral intention. But there is no significant differences in the perceived usefulness, internet self-efficacy between the two groups.