A cross-cultural evaluation of the psychometric properties of Information Seeking Anxiety Scale in Pakistani environment

Abstract

This study investigated the psychometric properties of Information Seeking Anxiety Scale (ISAS) using postgraduate students in a Pakistani university. A 47-item ISAS was administered to 297 students, selected through stratified convenient sampling procedure, by visiting each department at the university. An eighty-five percent response rate was achieved through usable returned questionnaires. The principal component analysis (PCA) using varimax rotation yielded six-factor solution to the Information Seeking Anxiety Scale (ISAS), namely, (1) Resource Anxiety; (2) ICT Anxiety; (3) Library Anxiety; (4) Search Anxiety; (5) Mechanical Anxiety; and, (6) Thematic Anxiety. This six factors corresponded to those of Erfanmanesh, Abrizah, and Karim (2012) but differed somewhat with regard to the statements loaded on each factor. Moreover, these six-factors combined together accounted for 52.7 percent of the total variance explained. Seven item were dropped as a result of reliability analysis resulting 40-item instrument. Also, the values of Cronbach's internal reliability coefficient alpha for overall ISAS and its sub-scales were found satisfactory as recommended by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). These results demonstrated the psychometric soundness and stability of ISAS when tested with Pakistani postgraduate students recruited from a research-intensive university. More psychometric studies are required before drawing any sound conclusions regarding adequacy of ISAS in assessing information seeking anxiety in Pakistani information users.