CYBER RELATIONSHIP MOTIVES: SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION.

In this study a Cyber-Relationship Motives Scale was developed and validated to see what motives drive people to make friends on the Internet. The scale was developed in 4 stages: item generation, purification, parsimony, and scale validation. As results of a 4-stage empirical study 9 factors involved in cyber-relationship motives were proposed: anonymity, the opportunity to meet new people, easier communication, curiosity, emotional support, social compensation, away from the real world, love, and sexual partners. These 9 motives were then grouped into 3 dimensions: adventure, escape to a virtual world, and romance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]