A shorter scale for measuring digital capital: Cross-national validation of the Digital Capital Scale

This article presents the development and cross-national validation of a shortened version of the Digital Capital Scale (DCS), a theoretical construct rooted in Bourdieu’s notion of capital and adapted to capture individuals’ digital skills and resources. Drawing on data from a representative sample of 7,936 respondents across Italy, Germany, France, and Denmark, we test the internal reliability, factorial structure, and new a 9-item scale derived from the original Digital Capital Index (DCI). Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we demonstrate that the short version maintains a strong unidimensional structure and exhibits robust solidity. The scale correlates with key sociodemographic predictors – education, income, and age – indicating convergent validity. This research addresses the growing need for a concise, scalable instrument to measure digital capital in comparative contexts. Our findings suggest that the abbreviated DCS provides a reliable and theoretically grounded tool for large-scale surveys, policy evaluations, and interdisciplinary research on digital inequalities