What It Means to be a Citizen in the Internet Age: Development of a Reliable and Valid Digital Citizenship Scale

This study puts forward a comprehensive digital citizenship scale based on carefully calibrated, overarching, inclusive components of digital citizenship that can be used to measure abilities, perceptions, and levels of participation of young adults in Internet based community. The Digital Citizenship Scale (DCS) had a 26-item five-factor model that was extracted using an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and then cross-validated through a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The DCS had respectable good reliability and construct validity, supported by a concept analysis of digital citizenship, the expert panel review, EFA, and CFA. In addition, the DCS was shown to have a convergent relationship with Internet self-efficacy and a divergent relationship with Internet anxiety. As a theoretically rigorous and well developed digital citizenship scale, this study will help understand individuals' perceptions of their abilities and trajectories as active and/or critical members of online communities as part of their everyday lives on local, national, and global levels.