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Online self-disclosure: Validation study of the French version of the real me on the net questionnaire

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Abstract

Because online interactions are anonymous, they may facilitate self-disclosure. The Real Me on the Net questionnaire designed by Tosun and Lajunen assesses the tendency to reveal one’s inner world on the Internet rather than in face-to-face interactions. It provides information on whether participants feel more secure on the Internet in comparison to “real-life” interactions. The current study aims to test the construct validity of the French version of the Real Me on the Net. This study included 256 adults. Participants completed the self-report questionnaire anonymously. A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the one-factor structure described by Tosun and Lajunen (Computers in Human Behavior, 26(2), 162–167, 2010). The French version of the Real Me on the Net has good internal consistency. This study confirms the good psychometric qualities of this self-report questionnaire. This instrument can be useful in investigations on Internet use motives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Lille, EA 4072 - PSITEC - Psychologie: Interactions, Temps, Émotions, Cognition, F-59000, Lille, France

    Marie Danet

  2. Laboratoire Paragraphe, Equipe CRAC, Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France

    Raphaële Miljkovitch & Anne-Sophie Deborde

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  1. Marie Danet
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  2. Raphaële Miljkovitch
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  3. Anne-Sophie Deborde
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Correspondence to Marie Danet.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Danet, M., Miljkovitch, R. & Deborde, AS. Online self-disclosure: Validation study of the French version of the real me on the net questionnaire. Curr Psychol 39, 2366–2370 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-0003-8

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