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Information Search Efficacy: A New Measure and Its Initial Tests

Communication scholars have recently begun incorporating self-efficacy beliefs as a central theoretical concept in information-seeking models. However, extant research is limited by the lack of a standardized measure of information search efficacy. The current study develops and tests a short, multi-item measure of information search efficacy. The measure is developed over a series of scale-purification studies and tested for its dimensionality, reliability, and validity. The final five-item, search efficacy measure is unidimensional, internally consistent, and stable in different search contexts and across different samples (students and adults). The measure is also valid and demonstrates acceptable criterion-related, convergent, and discriminant validity.