Validation and adaptation of the Brief Self-Control Scale for internet use among Chinese adolescents: Factor structure, reliability, validity, and measurement invariance across gender and age

Self-control plays a crucial role in mitigating the negative effects of improper internet use, such as internet addiction. While the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) has been widely employed to measure self-control, its items fail to adequately account for the specific challenges of internet use, and the dimensional structure of the BSCS remains unclear. Moreover, no psychometric validation of the adapted BSCS for internet use has been conducted. To address these gaps, this study adapted and validated a version of the BSCS specific to internet use. Data were collected from 6858 Chinese adolescents. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a three-factor structure of self-control in the context of internet use, which demonstrated good reliability, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.818 and a McDonald's omega of 0.875. Measurement invariance was supported across age, but strict measurement invariance was not established across gender. Finally, we found that the second factor of self-control for internet use was significantly negatively correlated with the level of internet addiction. These findings confirm that the adapted BSCS exhibits satisfactory reliability and validity for assessing self-control in the context of internet use among Chinese adolescents.