A study of development of the Interaction with Online Strangers Scale (IOSS) for adolescents

The study aimed to develop a valid and reliable measuring instrument to determine adolescents’ attitudes towards interacting with strangers on the internet. The sample of the study consists of two main groups, Study 1 (n = 684) and Study 2 (n = 1419), and the groups are divided into two subgroups, EFA (Study 1 = 384, Study 2 = 914) and CFA (Study 1 = 300, Study 2 = 505). Within the scope of validity studies, EFA and CFA, content validity, and criterion-related validity were utilised, while test-retest, Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient, and split-half techniques were used within the scope of reliability studies. As a result of EFA, a structure consisting of 17 items and one factor explaining 48.65% of the total variance emerged. When this structure was tested with CFA, it was determined that the fit indices were appropriate. The results of this study reveal that the Interaction with Online Strangers Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool.