Do technostress, support and engagement measures capture distinct constructs? A multi-site validity evaluation in Ghanaian Colleges of Education

Abstract

This study evaluated whether questionnaire items written to measure technology-related demands (overload, complexity and intrusion), institutional and instructor support, technology-related strain, academic engagement and perceived academic progress represent distinct constructs among students of Ghanaian Colleges of Education, and how far the associations among these constructs can be interpreted. Students from nine randomly selected Colleges of Education (N = 845; voluntary participation) completed a cross-sectional online questionnaire with 38 five-point items. Ordinal confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and discriminant validity indices, nested alternative models, a response style model, clustering diagnostics and an exploratory structural equation model were estimated. The eight-factor model fitted inadequately (CFI = .881; RMSEA = .074). Overload, complexity and intrusion correlated .856 to .869, the two support factors .871, and engagement and progress .905; combining the three demand factors reduced CFI by only .007. Strain correlated most strongly with intrusion (r = .711) and complexity (r = .683), and engagement with instructor support (r = .784). In the structural model, four of eight expected paths had the expected sign and three were reversed, a pattern consistent with collinearity among the predictors. Students were not sampled at random, colleges contributed unequal numbers of students, and all data were self-reported at one time point. The item sets need revision before they are used to test demands-resources models with students of Colleges of Education. Colleges should treat technology-related demands as one combined burden and give priority to instructors’ guidance and responsiveness when planning support for technology-supported learning.