The changing construct of computer anxiety for younger and older adults

摘要

A revalidation of a previously developed computer anxiety scale (Marcoulides, 1989) indicated changes in the factor structure for both younger and older adults. Two factors emerged — Direct and Indirect Involvement with computers — as compared with the previous two factors of General Computer Anxiety and Equipment Anxiety. This suggests that the construct of computer anxiety may have changed, perhaps because of the rapid changes in computers and the technological environment. Additional results showed that, while the factor structure was similar for younger and older adults, two items differentially loaded on the two factors. These results suggest the need for further examination of computer anxiety with older adults, with the possibility of developing computer anxiety scales specifically for older adults.