Xianmin Gong1,2, Kendra L Seaman3, Helene H Fung1, Corinna Loeckenhoff4, Frieder R Lang5. 1. Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China. 2. Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Switzerland. 3. Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development & Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, North Carolina. 4. Department of Human Development, Cornell University, New York. 5. Institute of Psychogerontology, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Information-seeking (IS) and emotion-regulatory (ER) motivation play meaningful roles in age-related changes in social interaction across adulthood. This study aimed to develop and validate the Social Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ) to assess these two types of motivation. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Ten items were selected from a pool as the candidate items of SMQ and were administered to 480 German adults (20-91 years old) for validation. These items were also administered to 150 U.S. (18-40 years old) and 131 Hong Kong younger adults (18 to 26 years old) for cultural-invariance examination. RESULTS: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that a two-factor, eight-item structure fits the German adults' data well with satisfactory reliability. Multigroup comparisons showed cross-age invariance among younger, middle-aged, and older German adults, as well as cross-cultural invariance among German, U.S., and Hong Kong younger adults. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: A new questionnaire, SMQ, was developed and validated to measure IS and ER social motivation across adulthood and across cultures.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Information-seeking (IS) and emotion-regulatory (ER) motivation play meaningful roles in age-related changes in social interaction across adulthood. This study aimed to develop and validate the Social Motivation Questionnaire (SMQ) to assess these two types of motivation. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Ten items were selected from a pool as the candidate items of SMQ and were administered to 480 German adults (20-91 years old) for validation. These items were also administered to 150 U.S. (18-40 years old) and 131 Hong Kong younger adults (18 to 26 years old) for cultural-invariance examination. RESULTS: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that a two-factor, eight-item structure fits the German adults' data well with satisfactory reliability. Multigroup comparisons showed cross-age invariance among younger, middle-aged, and older German adults, as well as cross-cultural invariance among German, U.S., and Hong Kong younger adults. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: A new questionnaire, SMQ, was developed and validated to measure IS and ER social motivation across adulthood and across cultures.