Designing and validating the Social Media Political Participation Scale: An instrument to measure political participation on social media

Social media have expanded citizens’ political repertoires with new modes of action. To measure these changing political practices, a new instrument, called the Social Media Political Participation Scale was developed and psychometrically tested. The instrument aims to capture both active, expressive forms of political action through social media as well as cognitive political social media use (e.g., sharing posts versus information seeking and acquiring). Based on a literature review and the recommendations of an expert panel, an item pool was generated. The second phase consisted of a questionnaire completed by 595 teenagers. The construct validity was assessed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), as well as convergent validity and internal consistency. The analyses revealed four theoretically grounded constructs measured with 21 items: latent engagement, follower engagement, expressive engagement and counter engagement. As a validated instrument, the Social Media Political Participation Scale allows future research to gain a more profound insight into who is politically engaged and why, as well as how digital technologies are embedded in diverse forms of political action.