Turkish adaptation of Ghosting Questionnaire: validity and reliability study

Ghosting is a newly studied term that is mostly used for online relationships. It is described as one of the methods used for breakups. As follows, the channels of communication are sharply ended without explanation.

This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the Ghosting Questionnaire, which was developed to measure ghosting behavior, in Turkish culture. There are limited methods for quantitative research, as it has only recently found its place in the field. For the Turkish adaptation of the scale developed by Jahrami et al. (2023), a process consisting of translation, data collection, and analysis was followed.

The study group consisted of 200 adults aged 18-39 years, 160 (80%) of whom were female and 40 (20%) of whom were male. The factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent validity were examined within this study. The Ghosting Questionnaire's unidimensional structure was confirmed by CFA as part of the validity assessment. Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the scale's reliability.

The results of the exploratory factor analysis support the unidimensional structure as in the original scale. The confirmatory factor analysis results show that the fit indices are at acceptable levels (GFI = 0.97, CFI = 0.99, NFI = 0.97, RFI = 0.94, IFI = 0.99 and RMSEA = 0.03). Corrected item correlations ranged from 0.417 to 0.710. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient results show that the test is highly reliable (α = 0.86).

These findings suggest that the Turkish scale has appropriate psychometric validity and reliability and can be used to measure ghosting behavior in the Turkish sample.