Development and Evaluation of the Mobile Tech Support Questionnaire for Older Adults

Despite the soaring rate of mobile device ownership among older adults, a common barrier to their continued mobile use is little to no tech support for learning or troubleshooting the complexities of mobile apps, features, and services. In this paper, using interviews (n = 23) and surveys (n = 259) with older adults, we develop and evaluate the mobile tech support questionnaire (MTSQ). MTSQ measures older adults’ preference for and perceived quality of support during continued mobile tech use. An exploratory factor analysis revealed two dimensions, helpful resources used on one’s own (self-reliant) and help from another person (social). Next, partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to explore the relationship between preference, quality, frequency, and ease of use of mobile tech support. Both preference for and quality of a support type positively influenced how frequently older adults used that type of support and perceived its ease of use.