Assessing Online Flow Across Cultures: A Two-Fold Measurement Invariance Study

Abstract

The association between online Flow and Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has attracted significant attention. Despite the consensus that online Flow plays a pivotal role in the development of IGD and other Internet addictive behaviors, there has been a lack of consistency in measurement scales used to assess online Flow. Even widely used measures of online Flow have not been psychometrically assessed across culturally diverse populations of gamers. Such an assessment would enhance the accuracy of cross-cultural comparisons. Attending to this need, the present study assessed the psychometric properties of the binary coded (i.e., Yes, No) Online Flow Questionnaire (OFQ), while concurrently taking into consideration country, age, language, and mode of data collection (online or face-to-face) differences. Two sequences of successive multiple group confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess the psychometric properties of the OFQ, between: (a) emergent adults from the United States of America (N = 482, Mage = 25.23, SD = 2.746) and Australia (N = 168, Mage = 23.55, SD = 3.37) and (b) adolescents from Greece (N = 1579, Mage = 16.12, SD = 0.849) and Cyprus (N = 1372, Mage = 15.54, SD = 0.656). Configural and partial metric invariance were confirmed between the United States and Australian samples. For the Greek and Cypriot samples, results indicated full configural and metric invariance. These results provide initial information to researchers and clinicians of the extent to which the OFQ maintains its consistency when used across cultures and invite for further cross-cultural studies in the field. Implications, as well as limitations, are discussed.

Online Learning: The Role Of Academic Self-Efficacy In Creating Academic Flow

“…This is inseparable from the lack of control that teachers can give to individuals when learning takes place. If individuals can regulate themselves well, individuals will avoid internet abuse and show good selfefficacy (Hu et al, 2019;Lee, Watson), & Watson, 2020;Odaci, 2011). The higher the academic self-efficacy in the individual, the higher the academic flow in online learning experienced by the individual (Diola & Mudjiran, 2019).…”

A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Influence of Psychological Needs and Cultural Individualism on Problematic Internet Use

“…In addition, it has been found that there is a connection between traits of loyalty, selfesteem [15,16], self-construal [12] neuroticism [17] coping style [18] agreeableness, emotional stability, personality, specifically conscientiousness [19,20] and problematic Internet use. However, one of the factors that play an important role in the development of problematic Internet use in individuals is the cultural traits of the country in which they live in [21]. As culture is effective in acquiring and developing personality traits [22], and it brings the individual a unique identity within the general rules.…”

The Online Flow Questionnaire: An Item Response Theory Examination

“…Past literature posits that a user's level of online engagement is underpinned by the interplay of their personal characteristics, their surroundings, and features of the medium itself such as online flow [10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Online flow has been defined as an individual's engagement/absorption in their online activity based on the progressive response to online demands, in a way that matches the rate of increase of an individual's performance to prevent boredom and maintain their consistent engagement [13][14].…”

“…Online flow has been defined as an individual's engagement/absorption in their online activity based on the progressive response to online demands, in a way that matches the rate of increase of an individual's performance to prevent boredom and maintain their consistent engagement [13][14]. Moreover, the escalation of an individual's online flow experience has been related to problematic behaviours such as Internet Gaming Disorder [8][9][10][11][12]15,22]. This has triggered the development of various instruments to assess the construct [13,[18][19], including the five-item Online Flow Questionnaire (OFQ) [13].…”

“…Of the various online flow measures developed, the OFQ was chosen to be studied here for a number of compelling reasons, namely its: (i) theoretical correspondence with the flow construct considering elements/dimensions of challenge (OFQ Items 1, 4), merging action and awareness (OFQ Item 1), task concentration (OFQ Item 1), a sense of potential control (OFQ Item 6), loss of self-consciousness (OFQ Item 1), altered sense of time (OFQ Item 2) and autotelic experience (i.e., the joy lies within the activity it-self and not the activity's product (Items 1, 9); (ii) broadly accepted use; (iii) robust psychometric properties, (iv) brief structure (only five items, allowing it to easier incorporate in lengthier surveys); (v) distinct, yet complimentary content to other immersion/ transportation scales (i.e. it explicitly emphasizes one's engagement/immersion with what they do online, and not their virtual context or persona/avatar of representation within it in an undifferentiated manner) and; (vi) capacity to accommodate international comparisons due to its use in different cultural samples and adaptation across different languages (e.g., English, Greek, Cypriot; [10][11][12][13][22][23][24]). Despite the scale's original validation using a predominantly adult sample of internet users (61% ranged between 20-40 years [12]), later studies confirmed its validity and reliability across different age-groups and national samples.…”