Main Psychometric Factors of Video Game Gratification Among Taiwan Adolescents: A Pilot Study

Abstract

With the popularity of smartphone and tablet, video games are easily accessible to teenagers. With the popularity of smartphone and tablet, video games are easily accessible to teenagers. The purpose of the present study is to develop a Video Game Gratifications Scale (VGGS) and evaluate the psychometric properties of the scale. The hypothesis of the current study is to test if the VGGS has a three-factor structure. The participants of the study were 408 eighth grade junior high schools students from eight counties in Taiwan. A total of 16 classes within 8 schools were sampled. In all, 50.98% of the participating students were male (N = 208) and 49.02% were female (N = 200). The average age was 14.35 (SD = 0.49). The data were analyzed by ACER Conquest 4 and Mplus 7.11 after they were collected in March 2016. On the basis of Greenberg (The uses of mass communication: Current perspectives on gratifications research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1974) and Colwell and Payne (Br J Psych 91(3):295–310, 2000), a three-factor model were proposed. The factors were action, companionship, and friendship. The Cronbach’s alphas for the three construct scores were .88 (three items), .90 (three items), .92 (four items). The partial credit model and confirmatory factor analysis model both exhibits acceptable fit. The Rasch separation reliabilities of the three subscales were .82, .89, and .98. Rasch analysis results indicated that the item thresholds of VGGS could cover most grade eight students’ responses despite the extreme high or low gratification of video game people could not be measured. Factor analysis results showed the moderate correlations of Action and Companionship as well as Action and Friendship reveal that ‘making me part of the action’ is an important element in video game gratifications. In particular, the high correlation of Companionship and Friendship indicates that the need for companionship is mutually affected by peer-relationships. Parents need to have certain degree of understanding about the content in video games that their children and their child’s friend are playing.