Psychometric Properties of the Paper-and-Pencil and Online Versions of the Italian Saving Inventory-Revised in Nonclinical Samples

Three studies were performed to investigate the psychometric properties of the paper-and-pencil and online versions of the Italian Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R) in nonclinical participants. In Study 1, the SI-R was administered to a community sample of 473 participants together with measures of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology, compulsive shopping, depression, and anxiety In Study 2, temporal stability of the SI-R was investigated by administering the scale to 75 participants twice with a 4-week interval in between. In Study 3, 452 participants completed the SI-R through the internet. Evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity and replicability of the original three-correlated-factor structure was obtained. After ruling out the bias due to nonrandomized assignment to administration methods through propensity matching, multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence of measurement invariance among the administration formats. However, higher latent and manifest mean scores were observed in online participants, consistent with the "online disinhibition effect." These results suggest that the Italian version of the SI-R retains the psychometric properties of the original in both the paper-and-pencil and online versions, though different norms may be needed.