Design and Psychometrics of Tools for Measuring the Consequences of Virtual Social Networks on Married Life

Couples' communication interactions in the context of social networks have been challenged. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of a tool for measuring the consequences of virtual social media on marital life by factor analysis.

This tool is a qualitative methodology based on the exploration of views and perceptions of married men and women about the consequences of virtual social networks on married life. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed through face validity (qualitative and quantitative), content validity (qualitative and quantitative) and construct validity (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis) in 700 married individuals. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined by the test-retest method (calculation of intra-class correlation coefficient) and internal correlation (calculation of Cronbach-alpha coefficient). Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS24 and AMOS24 software.

The initial instrument consisted of 20 items from a qualitative study, which after psychometrics, 4 items were removed and 12 items remained. The range of values calculated for the ratio and content validity index of the items were (0.83-1) and (0.66-1), respectively, and the impact score of all of them was higher than 1.5. The Intra-class correlation coefficient and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the questionnaire were obtained at 0.864 and 785, respectively. The results of exploratory factor analysis were four factors: "Threat of marital commitment", “individualization of cohabitation”,” Threat to privacy” and “Faded intimacy”. In confirmatory factor analysis the fitted model based on these four factors explained 43.75% of the consequences of social media presence on couples' lifestyle.

Psychometric results in this study showed that a tool with 20- iteme and 4 domains for measuring the consequences of social media presence on couples' lifestyles has good validity and reliability and it can be used as a suitable tool in this field.