Further validation of the motivations for electronic interaction scale

Many individuals use social media on a daily basis worldwide. Social media use has both positive and negative effects on mental health, which may be based on an individuals’ reasons for utilizing social media sites. The Motivations for Electronic Interaction Scale (MEIS; Nesi & Prinstein, 2015 ) was developed to assess attitudes and behaviors regarding the use of social media sites, allowing researchers to examine how motivation for social media site use relates to other important variables. Because there is no existing factor structure for the MEIS in the published literature, the current study seeks to gain an increased understanding of the underlying structure of the MEIS through exploratory factor analysis. Further, it has not been validated with a college student population. In an effort to gain an increased understanding of the construct validity of the MEIS, researchers performed an exploratory factor analysis on the MEIS with a sample of 643 college students. Results yielded a 22-item five-factor model with the following factors: Sexual Health, Feedback Seeking, Social Comparison, Emotion Regulation, and Romantic Communication. The current study’s identification and statistical support for differing subscales of the MEIS suggests it is a valuable tool for further exploration of social media use motivations.