Development and validation of the digital well-being scale using university students

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Educational Technology
• Public Health

Background:

• Digital technologies are integral to university students' lives, presenting both opportunities and challenges.
• Existing instruments lack comprehensive psychometric validation for assessing digital well-being in this population.
• Growing interest in digital well-being necessitates a reliable measurement tool.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Digital Well-Being Scale (DWS) for university students.
• To provide a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing multidimensional digital well-being.
• To facilitate research and interventions in higher education settings.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional survey of 1,533 university students in Ghana.
• Scale development using literature review, expert evaluation, and pilot testing.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA & CFA) for construct validation, reliability, and measurement invariance testing.

Main Results:

• A 41-item, six-factor Digital Well-Being Scale (DWS) was developed, including Task Interference, Digital Safety, Perceived Control, Digital Life Balance, Emotional Regulation, and Digital Dependence.
• The DWS demonstrated excellent fit, internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity.
• Measurement invariance across gender was supported for configural and metric levels.

Conclusions:

• The DWS is a theoretically grounded and psychometrically robust measure of multidimensional digital well-being in university students.
• Digital well-being comprises behavioral, emotional, cognitive, self-regulatory, and responsible dimensions.
• The DWS is a valuable tool for research, screening, and interventions promoting digital mental health in higher education.