ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Digital Mental Health
This article is part of the Research TopicSocial Interaction in Cyberspace: Online Gaming, Social Media, and Mental HealthView all 12 articles
Validation of The Immersion in Digital Life and Quality of Digital Experience Scales in German, French, Spanish, Polish and Czech
Provisionally accepted
Joanna Witowska1*
Christine Schoetensack2
Ruth Sarah Ogden2
Katarzyna Goncikowska3
Sébastien Chappuis4
Mónica Fernández Boente4Tereza Klegr5
Julie Papastamatelou6
Rafael Valenzuela7,8
Vanda Černohorská5
Nuria Codina7
Chantal Martin Soelch4
Marc Wittmann6
José Vicente Pestana7
Georgina Giner7Quentin Meteier4- 1The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland
- 2Liverpool John Moores University School of Psychology, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- 3Instytut Psychologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warsaw, Poland
- 4Clinical and Health Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
- 5Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia
- 6Institut fur Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene eV, Freiburg, Germany
- 7Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- 8Serra Húnter Programme, Barcelona, Spain
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The Quality of Digital Experience Scale (QDES) and the Immersion in Digital Life Scale (IDLS) were developed to measure positive and negative experiences of digital technology use and the extent to which different facets of life were digital. Critically, the QDES and ILDS were developed to be independent of digital device or platform, thus providing a more holistic account of digital technology use than previous measures. The objective of the current studies was to validate the QDES and IDLS in German, French, Czech, Polish and Spanish. Across the studies, data from a total of 4,447 participants were analyzed. Confirmatory Factor Analyses confirmed a three-factor model for the QDES consisting of Wellbeing, Social Connectedness and Time and Efficiency. The IDLS was also confirmed as having a single factor structure. Reliability and validity analysis indicated that the QDES AND IDLS showed good reliability and validity in all countries. The present study confirms that the QDES and IDLS offer reliable measurements of individuals' interactions with technology in the digital era. By extending the validation of these measures beyond English, to German, Polish, Czech, French and Spanish, we expand researchers and policy makers abilities to establish the positive and negative impacts of digital practices on individuals and societies.
Keywords: cross-cultural validation, Immersion, digital experience, Digital technology, Measurements, scale development
Received: 11 Jun 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Witowska, Schoetensack, Ogden, Goncikowska, Chappuis, Fernández Boente, Klegr, Papastamatelou, Valenzuela, Černohorská, Codina, Martin Soelch, Wittmann, Pestana, Giner and Meteier. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Joanna Witowska, jwitowska@aps.edu.pl
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