Development and initial psychometric evaluation of a digital competence scale for kindergarten teachers in Western China

To develop and validate a scale assessing kindergarten teachers’ digital competence in ethnic minority areas of Western China amid growing ECEC digitalisation demands, where digital infrastructure, access to resources, and professional learning opportunities may be uneven. A total of 764 kindergarten teachers completed a 29-item instrument covering five domains: digital awareness, digital skills, digital application, digital social responsibility, and professional development. Internal consistency (Cronbach’s α), Spearman–Brown split-half reliability, corrected item–total correlations, split-sample exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and known-groups comparisons were examined. The scale demonstrated excellent reliability (total α = 0.980; subscale αs = 0.895–0.969) and strong split-half reliability (total SB = 0.990; subscale SBs = 0.903–0.981). The structural analyses indicated that the theoretically specified five-factor model fit the data better than both three-factor and one-factor alternatives. Corrected item–total correlations were uniformly adequate, while the very high total reliability suggested some degree of item overlap. Known-groups comparisons also provided preliminary external validity evidence. The instrument provides a reliable, multidimensional tool for assessing ECEC teachers’ digital competence and can support diagnostic profiling and targeted professional development, particularly in under-resourced, culturally diverse, and regionally uneven early childhood contexts.