Purifying a Television Viewing Measure for Use in Consumer Socialization Research

Aims: The purpose of this study is to report confirmatory factor analysis on existing previously validated scales, by means of validating a television viewing scale.

Study Design: Survey.

Place and Duration of Study: A survey was conducted in the Klang Valley in Malaysia for a period of four consecutive months.

Methodology: The target population were college students (age ranged 19-30 above) in public and private institution of higher learning. College students were chosen because generally they represented the future of a country as with a good education, they would become middle-class professionals. Of the 1,200 randomly selected university and college students 956 completed questionnaires were usable for the data analysis. A television viewing scale was modified and adapted for the study.

Results: Using a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic approaches, this research replicated a television viewing measure. Initially, an exploratory factor analysis (N=956.) evaluated two solutions, ranging from 1 to 2 factors. Next, a confirmatory factor analyses, was used to examine the two–factor model identified by the exploratory factor analysis. A number of indices were used to evaluate the model fit. A confirmatory factor analysis of the factor structure of the adapted television viewing scale was conducted to assess whether the scale's purported 2 factors emerged. The findings of alternative model comparison converge with the results obtained from factor analysis, which demonstrated that television viewing constructs performed better when modelled as a disaggregated two-factor structure. Overall, the required reliability and validity assessment demonstrated strong support for satisfactory convergent validity and discriminant validity and proved to fit the data even better.

Conclusion: Researchers and marketers in the area of mass communication could consider adapting the television viewing scale of this study in a different multi-ethnic and cultural context to further examine how the instrument would perform.