Design and Validation of a Cyberhate Scale (ECO) in Colombian University Students

Abstract

Introduction. The Internet and Social Networks have become spaces for digital interaction in which the participation of people of all ages has led to a series of exchanges that can be recog-nized for their hateful content in relation to political, religious, gender and ethnic origin ideo-logies. This phenomenon has been called cyberhate. This research set out to design and validate a scale to measure cyber hatred in the Colombian population. Method. The final sample consisted of 1984 university students between 18 and 61 years old (M = 23.25; SD = 5.06), from 23 universities and 14 departments of Colombia. Results. The final version of the scale is made up of 32 items, distributed in three dimensions: victimization, perpetration, and observation of political, religious, gender and ethnic origin cyberhate. Content validity was performed with the support of nine expert judges, compared validity with the ECIPQ test (cyberbullying) and construct validity, through Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Discussion or Conclusion. The designed test presents optimal psychometric qualities. Its reli-ability index is α = 0.939, and ɷ = 0.96, which indicates an adequate level of internal con-sistency. Additionally, a moderate positive correlation with ECIP-Q is reported, which verifies the specificity and robustness of the cyberhate construct, differentiating it from cyberbullying. In conclusion, the ECO is valid and reliable for the reference population.