Development and Validation of a Social Network Site Use Motives Scale for College Students in South Korea

Abstract

Although it has been suggested that social network site (SNS) use motives are one of important determinants of SNS addiction, there has not been yet a scale to assess them. The aim of this study was to examine psychological properties of a newly developed Social Network Site Use Motives Scale (SUMS) in a college student sample. The SUMS was administered to 481 nonclinical participants. Exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency analysis, and correlation analysis were undertaken to examine its validity and reliability. Results of factor analysis indicated that the SUMS consisted of four factors. Indices of internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, and criterion validity of SUMS were acceptable. Our study suggested that SUMS could be used as an effective tool to assess SNS use motives. The usage of SUMS should be encouraged in future studies of SNS use motives. Future research using this measure could provide a more comprehensive model of the relationship between SNS use motives and SNS addiction.

Peer Pressure and SNS Addiction in Adolescents: The Mediating Role of SNS-Use Motives

“…SNS use motives were measured by SUMS, which was developed by Shin and Lim (2018) to evaluate SNS use motives in Koreans. This scale consists of 30 items representing four factors.…”

“…Participants respond to each of the items using a five-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The internal consistency coefficients for the factors of SUMS are .89–.91 (Shin & Lim, 2018). Although SUMS has been validated only with college students, this scale was originally designed for adults and young people over 15 years old (Shin & Lim, 2018).…”

“…With social motives, the goal would be to achieve positive social benefit (external/positive), and with conformity motives, it would be to avoid peer disapproval (external/negative). Recent studies have suggested that SNS addiction can reflect two additional use motives (Shin & Lim, 2018). These motives, which have been labeled information motives and pastime motives, involve using SNS to acquire intellectual resources and to regulate boredom, respectively.…”

“…The SNS Use Motives Scale (SUMS; Shin & Lim, 2018) was developed to assess SNS use motives more comprehensively. SUMS was designed to assess the six domains suggested in previous addiction research, including information motives, enhancement motives, social motives, coping motives, conformity motives, and pastime motives.…”

“…SUMS was designed to assess the six domains suggested in previous addiction research, including information motives, enhancement motives, social motives, coping motives, conformity motives, and pastime motives. Factor analysis of SUMS (Shin & Lim, 2018) showed four factors underlying SNS use motives: (1) information-enhancement motives, (2) pastime motives, (3) social-conformity motives, and (4) coping motives. In their study, information and enjoyment motives were combined to form information-enhancement motives, and social and conformity motives to form social-conformity motives (Shin & Lim, 2018).…”