Measuring Digital Stress in Children: Construct Validity, Model Comparisons, and Measurement Invariance of a...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Digital Media Studies
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Digital media presents opportunities and risks for children.
• Digital stressors like excessive screen time and social media pressure impact primary school children.
• Validated instruments for assessing digital stress in younger children are lacking.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the "Digital Stress in Children" scale (DSS-CH) for children under 14.
• To create a theory-driven, child-appropriate instrument with three dimensions: excessive screen time, compulsive media behavior, and approval anxiety.
• To provide a reliable tool for understanding children's perceptions of digital stress.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey of 907 Swiss primary school children (ages 10-14).
• Online questionnaire administered in classrooms, with latent variable modeling accounting for classroom nesting.
• Evaluation of competing measurement models including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM).

Main Results:

• The three-factor model (DSS-CH) demonstrated superior fit compared to one-factor models.
• Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) supported a general digital stress factor with specific facets.
• The DSS-CH subscales showed good reliability (ordinal α ≈ 0.81-0.89) and measurement invariance across gender and age.

Conclusions:

• The DSS-CH is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring digital stress in children.
• The scale effectively captures three related dimensions of digital stress: excessive screen time, compulsive media behavior, and approval anxiety.
• The DSS-CH can inform preventive interventions by identifying children with elevated digital stress profiles.