Test of Construct Equivalence of the Digital Literacy Scale and a Comparison of Latent Means between Different Age Groups

This study tested the equivalence of a digital literacy measurement tool across different age groups and examined differences in latent means. It measured digital literacy using the same items among 994 elementary students, 348 middle school students, and 220 university students representing childhood, adolescent, and early-adulthood groups, respectively. The digital literacy scale originally developed for the adolescent group was modified to accommodate the vocabulary and contexts appropriate for childhood and early-adulthood groups. The results confirmed complete configural and metric invariance across the groups, though scalar invariance was partially achieved. After partial scalar invariance was established, partial strict invariance was secured for comparing latent means. The comparison revealed that the childhood group scored higher on data and content literacy than the adolescents, but lower on community literacy. The early-adulthood group scored significantly higher than the adolescent group on data and media literacy. This paper interprets of these results, discussing the implications and limitations of the study.