Flayelle, Maèva, Castro-Calvo, Jesús, Vögele, Claus, Astur, Robert, Ballester-Arnal, Rafael, Challet-Bouju, Gaëlle, Brand, Matthias, Cárdenas, Georgina, Devos, Gaëtan, Elkholy, Hussien, Grall-Bronnec, Marie, James, Richard J.E., Jiménez-Martínez, Martha, Khazaal, Yasser, Valizadeh-Haghi, Saeideh, King, Daniel L., Liu, Yueheng, Lochner, Christine, Steins-Loeber, Sabine, and Long, Jiang
In view of the growing interest regarding binge-watching (i.e., watching multiple episodes of television (TV) series in a single sitting) research, two measures were developed and validated to assess binge-watching involvement ("Binge-Watching Engagement and Symptoms Questionnaire", BWESQ) and related motivations ("Watching TV Series Motives Questionnaire", WTSMQ). To promote international and cross-cultural binge-watching research, the present article reports on the validation of these questionnaires in nine languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Hungarian, Persian, Arabic, Chinese). Both questionnaires were disseminated, together with additional self-report measures of happiness, psychopathological symptoms, impulsivity and problematic internet use among TV series viewers from a college/university student population (N = 12,616) in 17 countries. Confirmatory factor, measurement invariance and correlational analyses were conducted to establish structural and construct validity. The two questionnaires had good psychometric properties and fit in each language. Equivalence across languages and gender was supported, while construct validity was evidenced by similar patterns of associations with complementary measures of happiness, psychopathological symptoms, impulsivity and problematic internet use. The results support the psychometric validity and utility of the BWESQ and WTSMQ for conducting cross-cultural research on binge-watching. • This study was conducted on a multinational sample of 12,616 TV series viewers. • We cross-culturally validated two scales measuring binge-watching motivations and engagement. • The WTSMQ and BWESQ are reliable and valid measurement instruments in 9 languages. • The WTSMQ and BWESQ may enable comparability of data across international studies. • The WTSMQ and BWESQ may promote an understanding of binge-watching across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]