Developing a scale to measure the social distance between tourism community residents

Abstract

Social distance is an important tool for evaluating the degree of intimacy between individuals that has been applied in various disciplines. However, while increasing attention has been paid to this topic, little effort has been invested in understanding the construct of social distance between tourism community residents. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale that would assist in understanding and evaluating the social distance between tourism community residents. First, focus group interviews, literature review analysis and content analysis were conducted to generate the initial items. Second, EFA and CFA were used as quantitative methods to analyze the questionnaire data obtained from the field survey of the tourism community. Following rigorous scale development procedures, we developed a 16-item scale that comprises three dimensions: degree of familiarity, degree of interaction and degree of support. The data support this dimensional structure of the social distance between tourism community residents as well as its internal consistency and validity (i.e., content, convergence, discriminant, and criterion-related validity). Theoretical and practical implications of the study results are discussed in detail.

摘要

社会距离是评价个体之间关系亲密程度的重要工具, 已经在多个领域得到了应用。然而, 关于这个话题的研究日益增加的同时, 很少有研究涉及旅游社区居民社会距离这一话题。本文的研究目的就是开发一个可以理解和评价旅游社区居民社会距离的量表。首先, 利用焦点小组访谈、文献分析和内容分析来形成量表初始项；然后, 通过探索性因子分析和验证性因子分析的方法来分析旅游社区问卷调查数据。根据严格的量表开发规范, 提出了一个包含三个维度16个题项的量表：了解程度、互动程度和支持程度。数据分析结果表明, 所开发的旅游社区居民社会距离测度量表, 具有较好的维度结构及其内在一致性和效度（即内容效度、收敛效度、判别效度和效标关联效度）。这个研究的理论意义和现实意义也在文中进行了详细讨论。

Keywords:

• Social distance
• tourism community residents
• social communication
• intimacy
• daily life
• scale development

关键词:

• 社会距离
• 旅游社区居民
• 社会交往
• 亲密关系
• 日常生活
• 量表开发

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funded by China Scholarship Council (201806190141) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41771147).

Notes on contributors

Min Chen

Min Chen, is a doctoral candidate in the School of Geography and Ocean Science at Nanjing University, China .Her research interests include tourism geography and tourism community.

Jinhe Zhang

Jinhe Zhang, PhD, is Professor in the School of Geography and Ocean Science at Nanjing University, China. His research interest includes tourism geography, tourism planning and tourism economic, social, cultural and ecological environment impact.

Jinkun Sun

Jinkun Sun, is a doctoral candidate in the School of Geography and Ocean Science at Nanjing University, China. His research interests include tourism geography, tourism fatigue and the relationships between environments and tourism.

Chang Wang

Chang Wang, PhD, is an assistant research fellow in the School of Geography and Ocean Science at Nanjing University, China. His research interests include tourism geography, tourism planning and tourists' environmental behaviours.

Jinhua Yang

Jinhua Yang, is a doctoral candidate of the School of Geography and Ocean Science at Nanjing University, China, and associate professor of the College of City and Tourism at Hengyang Normal University, China. His research interests include tourism geography, tourism planning and rural tourism.