{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T06:06:32Z","timestamp":1790057192631,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790035200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Inroduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>As higher education undergoes rapid digital transformation, digital empowerment has emerged as a pivotal psychological resource for student functioning. Existing instruments conceptualize empowerment narrowly as technical proficiency, and no psychometrically validated Arabic-language measure exists. Addressing both gaps, this study developed and preliminarily validated a Digital Empowerment Scale (DES) grounded in Self-Determination Theory.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A sample of 248 female university students in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (M age = 21.0, SD = 2.85) completed a 19-item pool tapping psychological competence and autonomy, technical-cognitive competence, relatedness, and digital, ethical, and legal awareness. Given marked non-normality, confirmatory factor analyses employed WLSMV estimation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A four-factor solution showed poor discriminant validity between the psychological and technical factors (HTMT = 0.92); a respecified three-factor model, after removal of one weak item, fit the data very well (CFI = 0.961, TLI = 0.954, RMSEA = 0.037, SRMR = 0.079). The final 18-item scale demonstrated adequate composite reliability (\u03c9 = 0.66\u20130.76) and clear discriminant validity (HTMT \u2264 0.43).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Pending criterion-related evidence and cross-validation in independent samples, the DES offers a parsimonious, theoretically anchored preliminary instrument for assessing digital empowerment among female university students.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1939454","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]],"date-time":"2026-09-22T05:40:33Z","timestamp":1790055633000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Psychological foundations of digital empowerment: development and preliminary validation of self-determination theory\u2013based scale for female university students"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Afnan Fahad","family":"Bin Dayel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU)","place":["Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.21608\/jsdses.2026.467343.1062","article-title":"Digital empowerment of adults within the framework of continuing education: an approach to digital literacy","volume":"5","author":"Al-Surur","year":"2026","journal-title":"J. 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