The Development and Validation of a Digital Fluency Scale for Preadolescents

This study serves to develop a multidimensional scale for assessing the digital fluency of preadolescents. The researchers applied exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate the constancy of the classified factors and to elucidate relationships among factors in the Digital Fluency Scale. A total of 224 sixth-grade (aged 11–12) elementary school students studying in Taiwan were included in the first sample set for developing the Digital Fluency Scale using EFA to explore its factor structure. The participants of the second sample set using CFA numbered 442 elementary school students. CFA was used to elucidate the relationships among factors in this Digital Fluency Scale, with results indicating that a four-factor digital fluency comprised collaboration and research, digital citizenship, critical thinking and innovation design fit the data well. The Digital Fluency Scale included 15 items; the CFA result supported the four-factor model, with the best fit showing validity and reliability. The students had the highest score in digital citizenship, followed by innovation design, critical thinking, and collaboration and research. Female preadolescents had better digital fluency than male preadolescents.