Development of a Measure : Internet Behaviors Scale

Background and aims: Previous studies had documented that Social Networking Sites (S.N.S) has pathological effect on its users. A multi dimension syndrome, called problematic Internet use (PIU), causing behavioral and cognitive symptoms, which results in negative impact on different aspects of life like social, professional or academic. Because of increased attention to PIU, some measure had been made, but they seem to be inadequate, due to new issue of the internet interactions. Therefore the necessity and importance of standard, valid and reliable tools to assess PIU and the related behaviors is clear. In a survey conducted by Morahan-Martin and Schumacher on differences between lonely and non-lonely in internet behaviors, “Internet Behaviors scale” was used. The paper was frequently cited as a source by different researchers, but no validity or reliability for that scale was reported. The scale evaluates the different aspects of internet behavior which seems to be a quite helpful tool for PIU assessment. Method: This survey presented results of a study that evaluate reliability and validity of “Internet Behaviors Scales” with Iranian university students. This questionnaire was completed by 156 volunteer students of Shiraz University. To assess reliability coefficient α and test retest method was conducted. To assess validity exploratory factor analysis and convergent and discriminant validity was conducted. Results: Factor Analysis indicated three dimensions of this scale: social aspects, negative impact and competency and convenience aspect. “The internet Behaviors Scale” as the results indicate showed acceptable reliability and validity with Iranian students. Discussion: The internet Behaviors Scale as the results indicated could be used as a standard scale (valid and reliable) to evaluate PIU and related behaviors. It is important that validity and reliability of this scale be measured by other means.


Introduction
Research had documented that social Networking Sites (S.N.S) has pathological effect on its users.A multi dimension syndrome, called problematic Internet use (PIU), causing behavioral and cognitive symptoms, which results in negative impact on different aspects of life like social, professional or academic.(Davis 2001;Morahan-Martia, Schumacher, 2003;Caplan 2002;Caplan, 2003) Because of increased attention to PIU some measure had been made.But they seem to be inadequate, due to new issue of the internet interaction, so there is a necessary for efficient tools for psychological problem in the on-line interactions.
In a survey conducted by Morahan-Martin and Schumacher in 2003 on differences between lonely and non-lonely in internet behaviors, "Internet Behaviors scale" was used.
The paper was frequently cited as a source by different researchers (including the Author), but no validity or reliability for that scale was reported.In this study we evaluate reliability and validity of this scale and by factor analysis we will see if the suggested three aspects of this scale explain total variance acceptably.(This scale was also used in survey that conducted by Author, titled as: "The Effect of loneliness on social Networking sites and its related behaviors".The article was submitted to Global Journal of Health science and the submission was accepted).

Literature Review and Purpose
As mentioned before, efficient, valid and reliable tools for assessment of PIU increasingly needed.Preference for online social Interaction (Leung, 2011) was measured by using 13 items based on Caplan (2002Caplan ( , 2003) ) studies, on the preference for on-line social interaction.5 point Likert type scale was used, 1=strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree.Sample items included "Treated better online than in face to face relationship", "feel safer relating to others on-line", "more confident socializing on-line than offline", "more comfortable with computers than people", "I am willing to give up some of my face to face relationship", "to have more time for my online relationship" and "I am happier being on-line than I am off-line".Reliability was as high as 0.83.
Another tool which was used in a study conducted by Caplan (2007), is Negative items used to operationalize negative out come associated with one's internet use, which were drown from measure employed in previous studies (Caplan 2002;Caplan 2005; Morahan -Martin -Schumacher 2003).Participants extend their agreement with three statements indicating that they had experienced negative outcome due to their internet use.
In that study reliability coefficient for negative out come reported α=0.70.
To assess Facebook Group use and Gratifications, respondent were given a list of 16 statements, regarding Facebook group use (Park et al., 2009).They rated their level of agreement with specific reasons for using Facebook groups, including: information, acquisition about campus community, entertainment/recreation, and social interaction with friends and family, and peer pressure/self-satisfaction (1 strongly agree 6 strongly disagree).The statement were adapted from cluster of categorized dimension, describing on-line group participants (Lin hf, 2006 This study attends to evaluate validity and reliability of "Internet Behaviors Scale" with Iranian students and also and also using factor analysis to see if three suggested aspects of this scale explain total variance acceptably.

Measures
The questionnaire completed by the Participants, including demographic characteristic, S.N.S experience and Internet Behaviors scale.(Those who had S.N.S use experience included in the survey)

Procedure
Internet behaviors were assessed by 38 Likert -type questions, the three aspects are: social aspects of S.N.S use (19 questions), negative impact of S.N.S use (15 questions) and feeding of competency online (4 questions).A four point scale was used.With 1 strongly disagree and 4 strongly agree.In this survey the mean ±SD for social aspect was 36.46±9.58.for negative impact 29±9.30and for competency online 11.06±2.09.

Statistical Analysis
For evaluating reliability coefficient α and test-retest were conducted, for evaluating validity, exploratory factor analysis and also convergent validity and discernment validity were conducted.

Ethics
Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with ethical standards of institutional and national research committee with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

Reliability
3.1.1Coefficient α Reliability was as heigh as α=0.89 for social aspect, α=0.94, for negative impact and α=0.66 for convenience and competency aspect with Iranian students.

Test -Retest Method
The scale of Internet Behaviors was given to 30 Shiraz university students and after 3 weeks the same test was conducted.Table 3-1 provides the descriptive statistics (Mean ± SD) for subscales scores.We used correlated samples t-test to formally test whether means are similar.A Pearson's correlation is computed to assess test-retest reliability.Note means are similar, and this table indicates that the correlation of the two scores (per subscale) is high and positive so there is strong support for the test-retest reliability.See table 3-1 after the references.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (Principal Component Method with Varimax Rotation) Was Conducted.
The results indicated three dimension (Social aspect, negative impact and competency and convenience online).This three dimension explain 48.18% of the total variation of the scale result Presented in table 3-2.See table 3-2 after the references.
According to the second table (3-2) almost all the items are located in their dimensions.Expect these that marked in red color.With a little neglect they could be located in their dimensions.The only item which is not in appropriate dimension is No. 18 of social aspect, which has a preference to locate in competency and convenience aspect.This could be due to the characteristics of our sample or the item probably should be in the third dimension.

Convergent Validity and Discriminant Validity
To evaluate validity of Internal Behaviors scales convergent and discriminate validity was assessed.See table 3-4 after the references.These finding show that scaling success rate for convergent validity is 100% for all domains expect for social aspect which is 89.4%.The success rate for item discriminant validity of internet Behaviors scale is 96.05 ( ) (this statistical Method for convergent and discernment validity is based on Fayers, 2000).As the result show overall validity is acceptable for internet Behaviors scale.

Discussion
"The internet Behaviors Scale" as the results indicate showed acceptable reliability and validity with Iranian students.The results of exploratory factor analysis indicated three aspects, social aspect, negative impact and competency and convenience aspect, explain total variation acceptably.

Conclusion
A number of scholars have noted the need for standard scales to assess internet behaviors along with more empirical evidence.The scale of Internet Behaviors could be a helpful device to evaluate PIU and its related behaviors.It is important that validity and reliability of this scale be measured by other means.It is also suggested that the scale, being evaluated on more diverse population.
Tables Table 3- ; Rinding, Geten, 2004) Addictive tendencies scale (Wilson et al 2010) based on previous research (Walsh et al 2007; Ehrenberg et al, 2008).The addictive tendencies scale (α=0.76)Compromised three items measuring level of salience: one of first thing I do each morning is log on to a social networking internet sites S.N.S (e.g.My space or Facebook) loss of control: (I find it hard to control use of S.N.S (e.g.My space or Facebook) and withdrawal: I feel lost when I cannot aces S.N.S (e.g.My space or Facebook) The measure mentioned above, were some examples of tool which are recently used for PIU evaluation.
of correlations between items and hypothesized scale corrected for overlap≥ 0.4 total number of convergent validity test.b-Number of convergent correlations significantly higher than discriminant correlations Total number of correlations Appendix I Scale of Internet Behaviors (Social Aspect)

Table 3 -
2. Results of exploratory factor analysis for internet Behaviors scale

Table 3 -
4. Convergent Validity and Discriminant validity of the scale of internet behaviors