Page 113 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

Descriptive Statistics
Results
LDRR or GCRR self-identification of the participants strongly correlated with the distance relationship status measurement checks that we included (r (456) = .80, p < .001). Table 1 provides a summary of the comparison of means for the main constructs (FBUI, FBRSup, RelStab, and RelSati), as well as the other variables included in this study. On average, individuals in GCRR had higher SNS use (FBUI) (M = 3.67, SD = 0.69) than those in LDRR (M = 3.47, SD = 0.76; t (454)= -2.84, p = .005), SNS relationship support (FBRSup) (M = 3.16, SD = 0.71 and M = 2.85, SD = 0.80; t (454)= -4.12, p = .000, respectively), perceived relationship stability (M = 6.41, SD = 1.08 and M = 6.02, SD = 1.46; t (212)= -2.82, p = .005) and were more satisfied in their relationship (M = 4.43, SD = 0.78 and M = 4.15, SD = 0.92; t (454)= -3.33, p = .001, respectively).
The top five communication channels with their partner for those in LDRR were instant messaging, video calling, Facebook private communication, SMS, and phone calls and for those in GCRR were SMS, phone call, Facebook private communication, instant messaging, and Facebook public communication. Other social media, like Twitter and Instagram, were the least frequent forms of communication with partner for both groups. It appears that Facebook private communication with partner was the third preferred communication platform for both those in LDRR and GCRR.
Invariance analyses
Since our study involved two different groups (LDRR and GCRR) with data for each group collected at different time points, we wanted to ensure the integrity of the measurement instruments and establish the comparability between groups. We performed a series of analyses using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) based on a procedure recommended by Kühne (2013). This procedure incorporates measurement invariance testing (configural, metric, and scalar invariance) and model comparison between the groups (test of moderation). Configural invariance indicates that the groups being compared share similar meaning of the latent constructs. Metric invariance and scalar invariance are necessary to make meaningful comparisons between groups because they indicate that the latent constructs have the same meaning and that there is no systematic
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