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Considering developments on the measurement of Internet Self-Efficacy literature, a short scale was developed with a focus on web searching across all domains. The Information Retrieval On the Web Self-Efficacy scale (IROWSE) was spread from the General Self-Efficacy Scale Schwarzer, R. 1994. “Optimism, Vulnerability, and Self-Beliefs as Health Related Cognitions: A Systematic Overview.” Psychology and Health: An International 9: 161–180 and measures the value attributed by an individual to her/his own capacity to organise and execute information searches on the web. In study 1 (N = 228), we aimed to ensure reliability, explore factorial structure, and check for criterion-related validity of a French form. In study 2 (N = 534), we aimed to validate an English version among US and international (non-US) sample. From an internal validity point of view, both IROWSE versions turned out satisfactory with a one-factor model of eight items. As expected, the scales were not confused with self-esteem as a trait (study 1), self-reported Internet search skills (study 2) or general attitudes towards the Internet, and stemmed from direct experience with the Internet (study 1 and 2). Overall, slight differences between samples would indicate the cultural sensitivity of IROWSE measure encouraging running studies with a comparative approach. Resorting to the IROWSE measure might enhance the understanding of Internet practices, information retrieval behaviours, and search performance since self-efficacy would thus be assessed at a more domain-specific level.
Rodon et al. (Fri,) studied this question.