Digital Flourishing in the U.S.: Validation of the Digital Flourishing Scale (DFS) and Demographic Exploration

An increasing number of research studies have focused on exploring both the negative and positive effects of computer-mediated communication on individuals’ mental health and well-being. However, there is a lack of a comprehensive scale that measures an individual’s online well-being. The 25-item Digital Flourishing Scale (DFS) was introduced to measure the 25-item Digital Flourishing Scale (DFS) to measure individuals’ positive perceptions of experiences and behaviors in mediated social interactions. The current pre-registered study aimed to establish the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent criterion validity of the DFS and its five subscales (connectedness, authentic self-presentation, civil participation, positive social comparison, self-control). Additionally, the study aimed to explore digital flourishing among different demographic groups. A Qualtrics sample of N = 486, representative of the American population in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, and income, was obtained in December 2021. Convergent validity was established for four out of the five subscales. Discriminant validity for the overall DFS score has been confirmed. The DFS was found to have a positive correlation with general well-being and a negative correlation with mental health problems (for three of the subscales after controlling for age). Furthermore, the study suggests a digital divide in terms of digital flourishing in relation to education and income. Several interesting findings related to demographics, digital flourishing, and mental health are discussed.