Digital Social Multitasking (DSMT), Friendship Quality, and Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Among Adolescents: Perceptions as Mediators

As shown in Table 3, a few positive perceptions had high correlations (>0.70), and thus additional CFAs were performed to examine whether those scales should have been combined. When Perceived Information–Self and Perceived Efficiency–Self were combined, the model fit was fine, but the adjusted χ² showed a significant change (Sattora-Bentler Scaled Chi-Square Difference = 14.96, Δdf = 3, p = 0.002), suggesting that the four-factor model was a better one. Similarly, when Perceived Information–Friend and Perceived Efficiency–Friend were combined, the model fit was fine, but the adjusted χ² showed a significant change (Sattora-Bentler Scaled Chi-Square Difference = 8.76, Δdf = 3, p = 0.033), suggesting that the four-factor model was a better one. Because combining the most strongly correlated perceptions already hurt model fit, no further modification (combination) was performed. In the initial analysis, factor analysis was not performed on the need satisfaction scale because it was a published scale. However, because the three satisfactions had high correlations, CFAs were conducted to assess whether the presumed structure was reasonable. The results showed that the three-factor model (χ² (51) = 162.915, p = 0.000; RMSEA = 0.065, 90% CI [0.054–0.077]; CFI = 0.945; TLI = 0.929) fit better than the one-factor model (χ² (54) = 243.41, p = 0.000; RMSEA = 0.082, 90% CI [0.072–0.093]; CFI = 0.907; TLI = 0.886): Sattora-Bentler Scaled Chi-Square Difference = 63.46, Δdf = 3, p = 0.000. For both statistical and theoretical reasons, the presumed factor structures for positive perceptions and needs satisfaction were retained.