Development of Digital Amnesia Scale Adolescent Form-DAADF and Examination of Psychometric Characteristics

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to develop the “Digital Amnesia Scale Adolescent Form-DAADF” to determine digital amnesia in adolescents aged 12–18 years and to examine its psychometric characteristics. Methods: In the study, 625 adolescents between the ages of 12–18 who use digital devices such as smartphones/watches/tablets/computers/televisions were reached. The development process of the scale consisted of content validity, construct validity, convergent and discriminant validity, reliability studies, and validation of the obtained structure. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine construct validity, and a 27% lower-upper group comparison was conducted to determine internal validity. The linguistically and psychometrically validated scale consists of 9 items and has a 5-point Likert scale. Results: The developed scale consists of 2 sub-dimensions and 9 items and explains 63.1% of the total variance. Scoring of the scale is obtained by summing the scores of the sub-dimensions and a score between 0 and 36 points is obtained. The higher the score, the higher the level of digital amnesia. The Cronbach α reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as 0.84, indicating high reliability. Conclusion: The developed “Digital Amnesia Scale Adolescent Form -DAADF” is valid in terms of scope and content and has high reliability.