Factor structures of the Korean version of the Need for Cognition Scale Short Form (K-NfC-S) among Korean older adults

Objectives: This study examined the factor structure of the short-form Korean version of the Need for Cognition Scale (K-NfC-S) among older adults in South Korea.

Method: Drawn from the 2020 Korean Media Panel Study, a total of 2,281 adults aged 65 years and older were analysed. We measured the need for cognition using the 15-item K-NfC-S. The sample was randomly assigned to distinguish between Sample 1 (n = 1,117) for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Sample 2 (n = 1,164) for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We conducted EFA and CFA using SPSS version 26.0 and AMOS 26.

Results: EFA results showed that the K-NfC-S demonstrated a two-factor structure of positively and negatively phrased items. However, CFA results revealed that both the one-factor model with correlated uniqueness among positively phrased items (TLI = 0.945, CFI = 0.972, RMSEA = 0.051) and the one-factor model with only positively phrased items (TLI = 0.924, CFI = 0.939, RMSEA = 0.072) exhibited good fit.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that method effects may influence the factor structure of the K-NfC-S among older adults. This study highlights the importance of using appropriate methodological approaches for measuring the need for cognition, with implications for future research.