Drawing upon online communication research, this study identifies six effective communication strategies for social media-based diplomacy on Twitter: interactive, personalized, positive, relevant, and transparent communication among a broad network of stakeholders. By using an extensive mix-method design (i.e., combining a manual content and automated network analyses, N = 4438 tweets), this research examines to what extent these communication strategies are adopted on Twitter by Western embassies active in countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council. We found that embassies are not utilizing social media to its full potential. Although embassies are transparent, use positive sentiment in their online communication and post relevant information to their stakeholders, they hardly engage in direct interactive and personal communication, and only reach out to a limited group of stakeholders. We recommend embassies to put more emphasis on two-way interactive communication with a vast variety of stakeholders.

This study aims to validate the Material Values Scale for children (MVS-c) by Opree et al. (Personality and Individual Differences, 51(8), 963-968, 2011) among children in early childhood. The MVS-c was originally developed to assess materialism among children between the ages of eight to eleven, and consists of three subscales measuring material centrality, material happiness, and material success. We administered the MVS-c to a sample of 120 elementary school children between the ages of six to eight. The MVS-c was presented orally in a structured interview and with the aid of visual response options. We examined the factorial structure, reliability, and construct validity of the full-length 18-item scale as well as the shorter 6-and 3-item versions. Analyses using structural equation modeling showed that its factorial structure (i.e., with material centrality, material happiness and material success as first-order factors and overall material values as a second order factor) holds for younger children. Though the 3-item MVS-c cannot be used among six-to eight-year-olds, the 18-item MVS-c and the shorter 6-item version proved to be both reliable and valid in this age group. Hence, the MVS-c can be used to assess young children's materialism, to examine differences in materialism across developmental phases, and to study developments in children's materialism over time.