Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Online Anonymity Questionnaire: An Investigation of Reliability, Validity, and Measurement Invariance
Xiaohui Wang, Lewis Nitschinsk, Zheng Zhang, Zhaoyang Xie, Mingqin Guo, Wang Zheng · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · 2025
Online anonymity refers to individuals to interact online without fully revealing their identity. To understand the motivations behind this choice in the Chinese context, we translated the Online Anonymity Questionnaire (OAQ) and assessed it with 1,405 college students in Guangxi, China, followed by a retest with 245 participants a month later. The study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the OAQ, assessing internal consistency, test-retest reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance. The questionnaire, featuring two dimensions—anonymous self-expression and anonymous toxicity—demonstrated good internal reliability and test-retest reliability for both subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis showed the two-factor model was a good fit (CFI = 0.98, TLI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.05), and partial scalar invariance was confirmed. These findings validate the Chinese version of the OAQ for studying online anonymity motivations among Chinese college students.