Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-5-2023
Abstract
An increasing number of research studies have focused on exploring both the negative and positive effects of computer-mediated communication on individuals’ mental health and well-being. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive scale that measures an individual’s online well-being. The 25-item Digital Flourishing Scale (DFS) was introduced to measure the 25-item Digital Flourishing Scale (DFS) to measure individuals’ positive perceptions of experiences and behaviors in mediated social interactions. The current pre-registered study aimed to establish the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent criterion validity of the DFS and its five subscales (connectedness, authentic self-presentation, civil participation, positive social comparison, self-control). Additionally, the study aimed to explore digital flourishing among different demographic groups. A Qualtrics sample of N = 486, representative of the American population in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and income, was obtained in December 2021. Convergent validity was established for four out of the five subscales. Discriminant validity for the overall DFS score has been confirmed. The DFS was found to have a positive correlation with general well-being and a negative correlation with mental health problems (for three of the subscales after controlling for age). Furthermore, the study suggests a digital divide in terms of digital flourishing in relation to education and income. Several interesting findings related to demographics, digital flourishing, and mental health are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Janicke-Bowles, S. (2023). Digital flourishing in the U.S.: Validation of the Digital Flourishing Scale (DFS) and demographic exploration. Communication Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2023.2289688
Copyright
Taylor & Francis
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Other Psychology Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Social Media Commons
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript version of an article accepted for publication in Communication Studies in 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2023.2289688 It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.