The Social Media Use Integration Scale: Toward Reliability and Validity

ABSTRACT

The growing importance of social media and research interest in the field makes it imperative to consider the measures used to assess social networking site (SNS) use. The Facebook Intensity Scale has seen prolific use since its development; however, it has been criticized by some scholars. Jenkins-Guarnieri, Wright, and Johnson (2013) suggested another scale, the Social Media Use Integration Scale (SMUIS), which was developed to be suitable for use across different SNS platforms. They advised further research to confirm its psychometric properties, testing it on a more diverse sample than US college students and on social media other than Facebook. In this study, EFAs and a CFA were conducted to examine the validity of the SMUIS on Facebook and LinkedIn in the African context. The results provide preliminary evidence of the reliability and validity of the SMUIS for diverse age ranges. Further testing of the scale on LinkedIn is recommended.

Notes

¹. Note that the racial classifications according to statistics South Africa were used.

². Majority (73%) from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and USA. The rest were from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Georgia, India, Israel, Italy, Korea, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom (Asghar, 2015: 262). Specific distribution of the rest of the respondent pool was not reported.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tania Maree

Dr. Tania Maree is a senior lecturer in marketing management at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her research focuses on marketing communication media, with a current focus on social media consumers and their behavior. She gratefully acknowledges the advice of colleagues who read this work, as well as Dr. M. Pohl for statistical assistance and advice.