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Development and Validation of Social Motivation Questionnaire
Xianmin Gong1,2, Kendra L Seaman3, Helene H Fung1
1Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.
The Gerontologist
|October 11, 2018
Summary
The Social Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ) effectively measures information-seeking and emotion-regulatory social motivation in adults. This validated tool demonstrates cross-age and cross-cultural invariance for social interaction research.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Social interaction motivation, including information-seeking (IS) and emotion-regulatory (ER) aspects, changes with age.
- Understanding these age-related shifts is crucial for comprehending adult social behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a new instrument, the Social Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ).
- To assess IS and ER social motivation across different adult age groups and cultures.
Main Methods:
- A pool of ten candidate items was administered to 480 German adults (aged 20-91) for validation.
- Cross-cultural invariance was examined using data from 150 U.S. and 131 Hong Kong younger adults.
Main Results:
- Factor analyses confirmed a robust two-factor, eight-item structure for the SMQ in German adults, demonstrating satisfactory reliability.
- Multigroup comparisons indicated that the SMQ's structure is invariant across younger, middle-aged, and older German adults.
- Cross-cultural invariance was established among German, U.S., and Hong Kong younger adults.
Conclusions:
- The Social Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ) is a newly developed and validated tool.
- The SMQ reliably measures IS and ER social motivation in adults across different age groups and cultures.
- This questionnaire provides a valuable resource for research on social motivation in aging and diverse populations.
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