Background & Aims of the Study: Virtual Social Networks (VSNs), as a major communication
tool, affect different aspects of life in society members. Due to the lack of an appropriate
questionnaire to assess the consequences of using these VSNs, this study aimed to design and
determine the psychometric properties of a questionnaire using consequences of VSNs in users.
Materials and Methods: This methodological research was conducted on 320 active users
of VSNs in Qom Province, Iran, in 2018. Based on the purposeful literature review, 97 items
related to various consequences of using VSNs were prepared. By assessing the face and content
validity of the questionnaire, using the opinion of an 8-member expert panel, the items were
quantitatively and qualitatively reviewed and reduced to 32 items. Furthermore, the reliability of
the questionnaire was determined by examining the internal correlation of items by calculating
the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the validity of the questionnaire was examined by a testretest
method using SPSS v. 20. Finally, to evaluate the tool’s structural validity, exploratory
factor analysis was performed using LISREL 10.3.
Results: After determining the validity and reliability, a 7-factor questionnaire with 22 items
was obtained. The content validity ratio and index values of all items were obtained to be more
than 0.75 and 0.79, respectively. In the assessment of structural validity, the factor load values
of all items, i.e., appropriate values, were measured to be more than 0.5. The reliability of the
questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to range between 0.65 and 0.85 and
a correlation coefficient index of 0.66-0.87.
Conclusion: The present study data suggested that the developed questionnaire, using
consequences of VSNs, had proper validity and reliability and can be used in future studies.