Assessing Online and Offline Adolescent Social Skills: Development and Validation of the Real and Electronic Communication Skills Questionnaire

Abstract

Studies examining the associations between Internet use and social skills are increasingly frequent. However, most of them only evaluate offline social skills and consider them as equivalents to online social skills. So far, no instrument allowed differentiating social skills depending on online versus offline contexts. This study aimed to develop and validate the Real and Electronic Communication Skills questionnaire (RECS), a new measure evaluating several dimensions of social skills in two different contexts (i.e., face-to-face and computer-mediated communication). Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses among a sample of 657 adolescents and young adults (mean age = 17.68 years; 67% female) showed that the best fitting model for each context is a bifactor solution, with one general factor (Social Competence) and four specific factors (Sociability, Emotion Decoding, Disclosure, and Assertiveness). Each specific factor was differentially correlated with theoretically relevant subscales of the Social Skills Inventory, confirming the external validity of the RECS. The RECS is the first instrument allowing not only to assess social competence in online settings but also to quantify the relationships between offline social skills and their online counterpart. Given its ease of use and brevity, the RECS is a useful and promising instrument to capture social skills in both online and offline contexts.

Adolescents' social interaction skills on social media versus in person and the correlations to well‐being

“…To our knowledge, only one measurement tool has been developed to evaluate several social skills dimensions in two contexts (i.e., face‐to‐face and computer‐mediated communication). According to its authors, the Real and Electronic Communication Skills Questionnaire (RECS; Mantzouranis et al, 2019) is a useful and promising instrument to capture social skills in online and offline contexts. This tool consisted of a 100‐item questionnaire comprising two subscales (face‐to‐face and online contexts).…”

Social Impairment in the Autistic Spectrum: Real-Life Versus Online Perceived Social Skills

“…(e.g., RCS: "In general, my friends see me as someone who knows how to assert themselves"; ECS: "If I disagree with someone online, I say so") (Mantzouranis et al, 2019, p. 25-26). Mantzouranis et al (2019) found a high internal consistency for the RCS and ECS scores with a Cronbach's alpha of .75 and .78, respectively, and a high scale reliability with a McDonald's omega of .81 and .84, respectively and confirm the external validity using the subscales of the Social Skills Inventory (Riggio, 1992).…”

“…No information about ethnic background, socio-economic status or sexual orientation was available. Note that the use of the Real and Electronic Communication Skills questionnaire (RECS) did not reveal any gender effect in the original study (Mantzouranis et al, 2019), conversely to the AQ (Baron-Cohen et al, 2001).…”

“…In order to obtain an assessment of the social abilities of the participants, a validated questionnaire in French, the Real and Electronic Communication Skills questionnaire (RECS; Mantzouranis et al, 2019) was administered. This instrument includes two self-reported questionnaires, one assessing social abilities in real life (Real Communication Skills; RCS) and the other assessing online social abilities (Electronic Communication Skills; ECS).…”

“…Therefore, considering the potential of online communication to facilitate satisfying social interactions in ASD, online communication tools could significantly enhance their mental well-being. However, so far, no studies have investigated online social skills in the autistic spectrum, while an easy-to-administer tool has recently been developed to specifically assess communicative and online socio-emotional skills (Mantzouranis et al, 2019). The purpose of this study was to examine global social skills both online and in real life according to autistic traits, in order to better characterize social functioning in everyday life situations within the autistic spectrum.…”