Contemporary society is quickly changing with digital and technology advancements. However, due to a lack of former experience and cognitive and physical challenges, older adults often fall into the digital divide, the gap between technology users and non-users. Such a gap exacerbates the already-existing disparities in health, information, financial, and social arenas older adults may experience. Therefore, understanding the factors promoting older adults to better use and understand technology became an important issue. Among different types of technology, this study focuses on information and communication technology (ICT) that plays a vital role in facilitating communication and interaction for older adults. While existing studies have explored factors influencing older adults' ICT use, including barriers, benefits, and usage patterns, limited research has focused specifically on their attitudes toward ICT. Attitudes are crucial in determining behavioral intentions and technology adoption, yet there is a lack of a standardized measurement for assessing older adults' perceptions of ICT. Most existing instruments focus on general technology or specific devices, such as computers, rather than ICT as a whole, and thereby miss the quickly changing digital landscape. This gap in research highlights the need for a more refined approach to understanding older adults' attitudes toward ICT. Therefore, this study aims to examine the applicability of attitudes toward ICT scale among the older adult population via reliability, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), convergent validity, and concurrent validity tests. The scale chosen for the reliability and validity testing is 12 attitudinal items from the Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale (MTUAS) developed by Rosen et al. (2013). The scale consist of both affective and cognitive attitudes, was tested for reliability and validity, and was focused on technology, which is broad enough to be modified into ICT. Respondents to the current survey were 231 older adults in Michigan who are 65 years old or older, and able to read and answer the survey in English. MTUAS attitudes toward ICT scale showed good internal reliability. CFA results showed Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) above and equal to the cut-off line respectively, indicating a good fit, while Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) exceeded the cut-off line, indicating moderate fit. Convergent validity testing between MTUAS attitudes toward ICT scale and attitudes toward ICT semantic questions showed a moderate-to-strong relationship between the two constructs. Concurrent validity testing between MTUAS attitudes toward ICT scale and behavioral intention of using ICT questions showed a moderate relationship between the two constructs. The findings suggest that while the scale demonstrates a moderately good fit, some items showing low correlations in the correlation analysis highlight areas for improvement. Furthermore, convergent and concurrent validity testing suggests that certain items, particularly those measuring negative attitudes, require revision as they exhibited weak associations with the overall factor structure. This study highlights an additional research gap, as few existing questionnaires assess technology dependence in older adults. The results indicate that older adults can relate to technology dependence, not just in terms of technophobia but also in anxiety stemming from not being able to use technology. This demonstrates the need for further research into the affective and cognitive, as well as positive and negative dimensions of technology attitudes among older adult populations. This study contributes significantly to the understanding of older adults' attitudes toward ICT and emphasizes the need for more targeted research, policy improvements, and social work interventions to support older adults' evolving digital experiences.
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