Keywords
Political Participation
Political Uses of Internet
Reliability
Validity
How to Cite
Abstract
Along with the widespread use of social networks and the entry of digital-native generations into political life, online political participation has gained increasing relevance. Internet use not only expands access to politically relevant information, but also broadens the range of possible political actions. Within this context, it is valuable to develop tools that enable us to measure the extent and types of digital political participation. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to develop a multidimensional scale of digital political participation (DPP), providing psychometric evidence of its reliability and validity, and evidence of its relationship with Offline Political Participation (OPP). Specifically, we applied the DPP Scale to a sample of 788 individuals from Argentina aged 18 to 70, who were selected through a self-selected non-probabilistic sample. The results of the structural validity analysis showed a multidimensional structure of four factors, with a satisfactory fit. Moreover, the internal consistency analysis provided evidence of the reliability of each of the sub-dimensions (ranging from α=.72 to α=.92). Finally, we demonstrated the test-criteria external validity of our study by obtaining results consistent with previous literature on the relationship between DPP and (OPP).
References
Ahmad, T., Alvi, A., & Ittefaq, M. (2019). The use of social media on political participation among university students: An analysis of survey results from rural Pakistan. Sage Open, 9(3), 2158244019864484. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019864484
Andiuza, E., Gallego, A., & Cantijoch, M. (2010). Online Political Participation in Spain: The Impact of Traditional and Internet Resources, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 7(4), 356-368. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681003791891
Brussino, S., Imhoff, D., Paz García, A., Alonso, D., Rabbia, H. H.., Dreizik, M., & Acuña, M. I. (2021). Heterogeneidades y policromías de las culturas políticas locales. Indagación psico-política de los casos de Salta, Córdoba y Neuquén (Argentina). Revista SAAP, 15(1), 183-210. https://doi.org/10.46468/rsaap.15.1.N2
Brussino, S., Sorribas, P., Rabbia, H.H., & Imhoff, D. (2013). Enfrentando los desafíos en la evaluación de la participación política: aportes a la discusión sobre indicadores y escalas. Polis, Revista de la Universidad Bolivariana, 12(35), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.4000/polis.9117.
Caballero, G. (2019). Usos de las redes sociales digitales para la acción colectiva: el caso de Ni Una Menos. Anthropologica, 37(42), 105-128. http://dx.doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.201901.005.
Campo-Arias, A. & Oviedo, H. C. (2008). Propiedades Psicométricas de una Escala: la Consistencia Interna. Revista de Salud Pública, 10 (5), 831-839. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0124-00642008000500015
Cazorla-Martín, Á., Montabes-Pereira, J., & Hernández-Tristán, M. J. (2023). Political Disaffection and Digital Political Participation in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis of the Period 2008-2020. Societies, 13(3), 59. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13030059
Castle, J. J., Jenkins, S., Ortbals, C. D., Poloni-Staudinger, L., & Strachan, J. C. (2020). The effect of the# MeToo movement on political engagement and ambition in 2018. Political Research Quarterly, 73(4), 926-941. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912920924824
Chayinska, M., Miranda, D., & González, R. (2021). A longitudinal study of the bidirectional causal relationships between online political participation and offline collective action. Computers in Human Behavior, 121, 106810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106810
De la Garza Montemayor, D., Peña-Ramos, J., & Recuero López, F. (2019). Online political participation of young people in Mexico, Spain and Chile. Comunicar, 61, 83-92. https://doi.org/10.3916/C61-2019-07
Delfino, G., Beramendi, M., & Zubieta, E. (2019). Participación social y política en Internet y brecha generacional. Revista de Psicología (PUCP), 37(1), 195-216. http://dx.doi.org/10.18800/psico.201901.007
Downing, S. M., & Haladyna, T. M. (2006). Handbook of test development. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2001). SPSS for Windows. Pearson Education.
Gibson, R., & Cantijoch, M. (2013). Conceptualizing and Measuring Participation in the Age of the Internet: Is Online Political Engagement Really Different to Offline? The Journal of Politics, 75(3), 701-716. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613000431.
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Molyneux, L., & Zheng, P. (2014). Social media, political expression, and political participation: Panel analysis of lagged and concurrent relationships. Journal of communication, 64(4), 612-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12103
Glutting, J., Monaghan, M., Adams, W., & Sheslow, D. (2002). Some psychometric properties of a system to measure ADHD among college students. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 34, 194-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481756.2002.12069037
Holgado-Tello, F. P., Morata-Ramírez, M. A. & Barbero García, M. I. (2018). Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Ordinal Variables: A Simulation Study Comparing the Main Estimation Methods. Avances en Psicología Latinoamericana, 36(3), 601-617. http://dx.doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/apl/a.4932
Kim, B., & Hoewe, J. (2020). Developing contemporary factors of political participation. The Social Science Journal, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2020.1782641
Fu, K., Wong, P. W. C., Law, Y.W., & Yip, P. S. F. (2016): Building a typology of young people’s conventional and online political participation: A randomized mobile phone survey in Hong Kong, China, Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 13(2), 126-141. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2016.1158138
Lloret-Segura, S., Ferreres-Traver, A., Hernández-Baeza, A., & Tomás-Marco, I. (2014). El análisis factorial exploratorio de los ítems: una guía práctica, revisada y actualizada. Anales de Psicología / Annals of Psychology, 30(3), 1151-1169. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.30.3.199361
Lorenzo-Seva, U., & Ferrando, P. J. (2019). Robust Promin: un método para la rotación de factores de diagonal ponderada. Liberabit, 25(1), 99-106. http://dx.doi.org/10.24265/liberabit.2019.v25n1.08
Montero, I., & León, O. G. (2007). A guide for naming research studies in Psychology. International Journal of clinical and Health psychology, 7(3), 847-862.
Morrison, A. P., Wells, A., & Nothard, S. (2000). Cognitive factors in predisposition to auditory and visual hallucinations. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39, 67-78. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466500163112
Nasır, S., Şahin, O., & Kır, M. (2022). Profiling the Citizens Based on Their Offline and Online Political Participation Level. En N. Chitadze (Ed.) Global Dimensions of Democracy and Human Rights: Problems and Perspectives (pp. 214-230). IGI Global.
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2006). The Content Validity Index: Are You Sure You Know What’s Being Reported? Critique and Recommendations. Research in Nursing & Health, 489-497. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20147
Robles, J. M., Molina, O., & De Marco, S. (2012). Participación política digital y brecha digital política en España. Un estudio de las desigualdades digitales. Arbor, 188(756), 795-810. https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2012.756n4012
Rodríguez-Estrada, A., Muñiz, C., & Echeverría, M. (2020). Relación de la participación política online y offline en el contexto de campañas subnacionales. Cuadernos. info, (46), 1-23. https://dx.doi.org/10.7764/cdi.46.1712
Ruess, C., Hoffmann, C. P., Boulianne, S., & Heger, K. (2021). Online political participation: The evolution of a concept. Information, Communication & Society, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.2013919
Schumann, S., & Klein, O. (2015). Substitute or stepping stone? Assessing the impact of low‐threshold online collective actions on offline participation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(3), 308-322. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2084
Smidi, A., & Shahin, S. (2017). Social media and social mobilisation in the Middle East: A survey of research on the Arab Spring. India Quarterly, 73(2), 196-209. https://doi.org/10.1177/0974928417700798
Sorribas, P. M., & Brussino, S. (2017). Dimensiones y factores explicativos de la Participación Política: la relevancia del enfoque psico-social. En Brussino, S. (Comp.) Políticamente, contribuciones desde la psicología política en Argentina, 103-130. CONICET. https://rdu.unc.edu.ar/handle/11086/4910
Sterba, S. K., & Foster, E. M. (2008). Self-selected sample. En: P.J. Lavrakas (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods (pp. 806-808). SAGE Publications.
Suray Ventura, A. (2016). Argumentación y discurso político en Twitter. Análisis de la campaña presidencial argentina 2011. Aposta. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, (69), 39-66.
Vicente, M. R., & Novo, A. (2014). An empirical analysis of e-participation. The role of social networks and e-government over citizens’ online engagement. Government Information Quarterly, 31(3), 379-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2013.12.006
Vissers, S., & Stolle, D. (2014). Spill-over effects between Facebook and on/offline political participation? Evidence from a two-wave panel study. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 11(3), 259-275. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2014.888383
Waeterloos, C., Walrave, M., & Ponnet, K. (2021) Designing and validating the Social Media Political Participation Scale: An instrument to measure political participation on social media. Technology in Society, 64, 101493 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101493
Wilkins, D. J., Livingstone, A. G., & Levine, M. (2019). All click, no action? Online action, efficacy perceptions, and prior experience combine to affect future collective action. Computers in Human Behavior, 91, 97-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.09.007
Zumárraga-Espinosa, M., Reyes-Valenzuela, C., & Carofilis-Cedeño, C. (2022). Dimensiones de la participación política offline y online: factores de primer y segundo orden. Revista mexicana de ciencias políticas y sociales, 67(245), 105-139. https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.2448492xe.2022.245.69646
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Silvina Brussino, Daniela Alonso, Débora Imhoff