Development and Validation of a Digital Wellbeing Scale for Students in Higher Education
Stella Eteng-Uket, Jeremiah GodfreyIntroduction:
The increasing integration of digital technologies into higher education has created growing concerns regarding students’ digital wellbeing. Despite the expanding literature on digital wellbeing, existing instruments remain conceptually fragmented and psychometrically limited, particularly among undergraduate populations. This study developed and validated a multidimensional Digital Wellbeing Scale (DWS) for undergraduate students in higher education.
Methods:
The study adopted an instrumentation research design. A sample of 1,050 undergraduate students was drawn from three public universities in Nigeria using multistage sampling techniques. An initial pool of 125 items was generated from literature and expert consultation. After pilot testing, item analysis, and refinement, we conducted Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) using Principal Axis Factoring with Oblimin rotation on a 75-item version of the scale. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), convergent validity, Cronbach's alpha, McDonald’s omega, Composite Reliability (CR), Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and corrected item–total correlations were used to establish psychometric properties.
Results and Discussion:
EFA supported a five-factor structure comprising Digital Balance, Digital Stress, Digital Mindfulness, Digital Literacy, and Social Wellbeing. The final 50-item scale explained 44.49% of the total variance, with factor loadings ranging from .45 to .94. Convergent validity with related scales was high (r = .96, p < .001). CFA demonstrated moderate model fit (CFI = .915, TLI = .908, RMSEA = .090, SRMR = .101). Reliability indices indicated satisfactory internal consistency across all dimensions.
Conclusion:
The Digital Wellbeing Scale demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability for assessing multidimensional digital wellbeing among undergraduate students and may be useful for research, counselling, screening, and intervention planning in higher education settings.