Development and validation of a scale to measure media multitasking among adolescents: results from China

Media multitasking is increasingly common among youth, and it has thus attracted growing research interest. This study aims to develop and validate a comprehensive scale to measure media multitasking (i.e., media multitasking scale, MMS) that applies to adolescents. A sample of 1140 Chinese adolescents completed a questionnaire to test its reliability, validity, and generality empirically. First, principal component analysis (PCA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) both supported a three-factor structure of the media multitasking scale. The total variance explained in PCA was 54.77%, indicating satisfactory construct validity. Second, the reliability analyses within each sub-dimension and for the total MMS also showed an adequate internal consistency for the scale, ranging from 0.64 to 0.82. Third, the correlation between MMS and other instruments that measured similar concepts revealed a good convergent validity for the scale, between 0.39 and 0.68. Thus, the MMS is potentially a comprehensive scale for measuring media multitasking among adolescents in the digital era.