To develop and validate the Digital Well-Being Scale (DWS) for assessing digital well-being among university students.
Approach:
Study Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,533 undergraduate and postgraduate students from a public university in Ghana.
Scale Development: Involved literature review, expert evaluation, pilot testing, and psychometric validation.
Data Analysis: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) identified the factor structure, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate construct validity.
Key Findings:
EFA supported a six-factor solution: Task Interference, Digital Safety and Responsible Use, Perceived Control and Satisfaction, Digital Life Balance, Emotional Regulation, and Digital Dependence and Frustration.
A 41-item scale was retained after CFA-based refinement, demonstrating excellent fit to the data.
The DWS showed satisfactory internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity across all dimensions.
Measurement invariance analyses supported configural and metric invariance across gender, with partial support for scalar invariance.
Interpretation:
The DWS provides a multidimensional measure of digital well-being, encompassing behavioral, emotional, cognitive, self-regulatory, and responsible dimensions of digital engagement.
Limitations:
The study was conducted at a single public university in Ghana, which may limit generalizability.
Partial support for scalar invariance suggests that the scale may not function equivalently across all groups.
Conclusion:
The DWS is a valuable tool for research, screening, and intervention aimed at understanding and promoting digital well-being and digital mental health in higher education settings.
