Rasch Analysis of the Korean Internet Social Capital Scales

ABSTRACT Internet‐based ties increasingly function as social resources, but item‐ and category‐level evidence for the Korean Internet Social Capital Scales (K‐ISCS) remains limited. This study evaluated the 18‐item, 7‐point K‐ISCS using Rasch measurement in a nationwide online panel of Korean adults ( n = 1500). Residual‐based dimensionality diagnostics supported the theoretical distinction between online bonding and bridging social capital; therefore, the main analyses were conducted separately by subscale. Both subscales showed generally acceptable item fit, ordered category functioning, high person reliability and separation, and precisely estimated item difficulty hierarchies within the calibration sample. Item 4 in the bonding subscale and item 18 in the bridging subscale showed underfit, indicating the need for closer review of the emergency‐loan and frequent‐new‐contact items. Person–item maps and test information functions showed that both subscales measured most precisely near the center of the latent continuum, with lower precision at the tails. DIF was mostly negligible across gender and age groups, although item 18 showed slight‐to‐moderate gender‐related DIF. Overall, the findings support interpreting the K‐ISCS as two related but distinct subscales for assessing perceived online bonding and bridging resources in Korean adults, rather than as an undifferentiated total score.