ERIC ED417667: Measuring Time-Management Skills: Cross-Cultural Observations on Britton and Tesser's Time Management Scale.

23 Pages·1995·0.31 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 417 667
HE 031 123
AUTHOR
Trueman, Mark; Hartley, James
TITLE
Measuring Time-Management Skills: Cross-Cultural
Observations on Britton and Tesser's Time Management Scale.
PUB DATE
1995-00-00
NOTE
21p.
PUB TYPE
Reports
Research (143)
EDRS PRICE
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DESCRIPTORS
*Academic Achievement; College Students; Cross Cultural
Studies; Foreign Countries; Grades (Scholastic); Higher
Education; Long Range Planning; Self Management; Sex
Differences; *Time Management
IDENTIFIERS
Great Britain; *Time Management Scale
ABSTRACT
This paper reports to attempt to replicate in Britain
Britton and Tesser's (1991) study of the relationship between scores on a
time management scale and college grades using a larger sample size and a
British (rather than American) student population. Subjects were 302
psychology students who completed the 18-item scale after their first term of
study. Results were compared with data on an end-of-year examination,
coursework grades awarded during the year, and the final end-of-year grade.
Results indicated that the three-component structure of the scale used by
Britton and Tesser was not sustained, and a revised two-component scale
measuring "daily planning" and "confidence in long term planning" was
preferred. The results from the Confidence in Long Term Planning sub-scale
showed small but significant relationships with scores on coursework,
examination results, and end of year assessments. In addition, women students
scored significantly higher than men on the Daily Planning sub-scale.
(DB)
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Britton and Tesser's
Skills: Cross-Cultural Observations on
Measuring Time-Management
Time Management Scale
Mark Trueman and James Hartley
University of Kee le, U.K.
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MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Running head: MEASURING TIME
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Measuring time-management skills
2
Abstract
in Britain Britton and Tesser's (1991) study of the
This paper reports an attempt to replicate
scale and college grades using a larger
relationship between scores on a time management
of the scale used by Britton
sample size. The results indicate that the 3 component structure
scale measuring Daily Planning and
and Tesser was not sustained, and a revised 2 component
results from the Confidence in Long
Confidence in Long Term Planning was preferred. The
but significant relationships with scores on
Term Planning sub-scale scale showed small
In addition, women students
coursework, examination results and end of year assessments.
Planning sub-scale.
scored significantly higher than men on the Daily
Measuring time-management skills
3
Cross-Cultural Observations on Britton and Tesser's
Measuring Time-Management Skills:
Time Management Scale
Journal of Educational Psychology
In an interesting paper published earlier in the
how few studies of time management had assessed the
Britton and Tesser (1991) reported on
Britton and Tesser developed a time
long-term benefits of time management skills.
they administered to 90 students in their first-year
management scale for students which
obtained these students' grade point
introductory psychology class. Four years later they
that two
then carried out a regression analysis which showed
average scores. The authors
Attitudes and Short Range Planning -were
time management components - labelled Time
and accounted for more variance than
significant predictors of the grade point average scores
entered college).
did the SAT scores (collected before the students
Dipboye and Phillips (1990),
Britton and Tesser concluded, as did Macan, Shahani,
achievement and that, as time management
that time management practices influences college
time management skills.
skills could be taught, it was important to identify
used to develop items for Britton and
A number of sources in the literature were
there were 35 items in a Likert type scale
Tesser' s time management questionnaire. Originally
that there were 12 components with
and format. Principal components analysis indicated
that only three of these were important.
eigenvalues greater than 1, but the scree test indicated
three
varimax solution;
These three components were retained and rotated with a
variance, were labelled: Short Range Planning;
components, which accounted for 36% of the
lists the U.K. equivalent of 17 of the 18
Time Attitudes; and Long Range Planning. Table 1
items finally used in Britton and Tesser's scale.
least are worth further discussion.
From reading this report it seems that two issues at
such a small sample? Is the scale
Firstly, can one generalise from the results obtained from
cross-cultural, studies? Accordingly, we
robust? And secondly, what might happen in other,
Tesser's findings with respect to their Time
set out to try and replicate Britton and
Measuring time-management skills
4
British university students.
Management scale using a sample of
Method
Materials
questionnaire of time
Britton and Tesser (1991) initially employed a 35-item
questionnaire resulted in the identification of an 18-item
management. Factor analysis of this
of Short Range Planning; a 6-item
scale which consisted of 3 subscales: a 7-item measure
and
and a 5-item measure of Long Range Planning. Britton
measure of Time Attitudes;
psychometric properties of the 18-item scale or the
Tesser (1991) present no evaluation of the
three subscales.
version of this 18-item scale. The
In the present study we employed an amended
suit the British context and one item
wording of the some of the items was slightly changed to
British culture
Attitudes subscale as it did not seem relevant to the
was omitted from the Time
with personal grooming than doing
('On an average class day do you spend more time
left of Table 1.
schoolwork?). The revised 17-item scale is presented on the
Details of scoring
'Frequently', 'Sometimes', 'Infrequently'
Each scale item had five response categories: 'Always',
high score indicating a positive attempt at
and 'Never'. These were scored from 1 to 5 with a
for items 8, 10, 12 and 15 and as 5 for
managing time. The response, 'Always' was scored as 1
17 - 85 on the 17-item Time
the remainder of the items. The range of possible scores was
sub-scale; 6 - 30 on the Time
Management Scale; 7 - 35 on the Short Range Planning
Planning sub-scale.
Attitudes sub-scale; and 5 - 25 on the Long Range
Participants
222 women) following a first-year
Our sample consisted of 302 students (80 men and
of the
of the men was 23.4 years and the average age
course in psychology. The average age
women was 23.1 years.
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P-
Measuring time-management skills
5
Procedure
after completing their first
The students were given the scale to complete in January
degree. Data were also collected on (i) an end-of-year
term of study for their psychology
(ii) coursework marks awarded during the year;
examination given at the end of the first year;
the exam scores combined with course-work
and (iii) an end-of-year assessment (based on
assessment marks).
Results
Psychometric Analysis
assessed using Cronbach's alpha. The
The internal reliability of the 17-item scale was
reliability (Alpha=.77). The values
total scale was shown to have a reasonable level of internal
and Long Range Planning sub-scales
of Alpha for the Short Range Planning, Time Attitudes,
were .81, .57 and .48 respectively.
and the 7-item Short Range
These findings indicated that the 17-item Total Scale
5-item Time Attitudes sub-scale
Planning sub-scale were reliable measures. However, the
5-item Long Range Planning sub-
showed only a marginal level of internal reliability, and the
scale was not found to be reliable in its present form.
principal component analysis in an
The data from the 17-item scale were submitted to
by Britton and Tesser (1991) using a similar
attempt to replicate the three scales identified
indicated that the data
methodology. The Measure of Sampling Adequacy was .83 which
with
analysis. Although there were four components
were suitable for principal components
component solution provided
eigen values in excess of 1.0, the Scree test indicated that a two
loadings on these
The varimax rotated principal components
a better explanation of the data.
Table 1.
two principal components are shown in
indicated only slight agreement with
The results of the principle component analysis
study found that a two component
the findings of Britton and Tesser (1991). The present
Measuring time-management skills
6
r
explanation of the variance. These two components
solution provided the most parsimonious
with 36% of the variance explained by
explained a total of 37.9% of the variance compared
Britton and Tesser study.
the three component solution in the
shows that the scale items did not
Inspection of the component loadings in Table 1
Tesser. If a cut-off of 0.40 is used for the purposes
cluster in the manner found by Britton and
is only partial support for the component structure
of interpretation it can be seen that there
and 9) failed to load on either component at
found by Britton and Tesser. Three items (16, 13
fourteen items loaded equally highly on both
0.40. In addition, three of the remaining
of
Finally, two items showed unexpected patterns
components (items 6, 14 and 17).
15).
component loadings (items 7 and
Tables 1 and 2 about here
internal reliabilities for the Time Attitudes
These findings, taken together with the poor
the need to revise the structure of the Time
and Long-Range Planning sub-scales, indicated
respondents. This revision was achieved by
Management scale for use with this sample of
principle component analysis and re-examining
successively deleting the poorest item from the
solution was found after items 16, 13 and 9
the pattern of component loadings. The optimal
.14--item scale are
loadings for this revised
were deleted from the analysis. The component
shown in Table 2.
number of important features. First,
The component loadings given in Table 2 show a
parsimonious explanation of the data.
the two component solution was confirmed as the most
each item
by the two components. Secondly,
Indeed, 44.1% of the variance is now explained
structure lacking in
single component. This achieves the simple
now loads substantially on a
Thirdly, it is clear that Britton and Tesser's
the original analysis depicted in Table 1.
explain the present findings.
interpretation of the components is not sufficient to
Measuring time-management skills
7
assessing Daily Planning activities
The present authors interpret the first component as
practical activity carried out each day. The second component seems
as each item refers to a
time span is
Term Planning. For each of these items a longer
to measure Confidence in Long
self-confidence, locus of control or self-efficacy.
referred to and several items seem to hint at
composite of the Time Attitudes component and Long-
As such this component seems to be a
Britton and Tesser (1991).
Range Planning component identified by
scale was found to be
The internal reliability of the new 14-item Time Management
Planning sub-scale produced an alpha of 0.85.
0.79 using Cronbach's Alpha. The 5-item Daily
sub-scale produced an alpha of 0.71.
The 9-item Confidence in Long-Term Planning
Comparisons between men and women
the total Time Management scale
The mean scores on each of the two sub-scales and
the means of
of independent t-tests was carried out to compare
are shown in Table 3. A series
the men and women students on these scales.
Table 3 about here
difference in the Daily Planning scores (
Table 3 shows that there was a significant sex
frequent
students reported that they engaged in more
= 5.68, df = 300, 1? <.001). The women
daily planning of their academic work than did the men.
significant difference between the
Table 3 also shows, however, that there was no
and women respondents (t = 1.45, df=
Confidence in Long Term Planning scores of the men
300, nsd).
however, there was a significant
In terms of the total Time Management scores,
students (L= 4.14, df = 300,
difference between the responses of the men and the women
concerns than did the men
R<.001). The women students reported greater time management
students.
Measuring time-management skills
8
Time management and academic performance
and 282 women students were
Data on the end-of-year performance of 74 men
data consisted of an end-of-year examination score, an
available at the time of writing. These
end-of-year
mark for written work done during the year, and an
average course-work
for course-
the average of the examination score and the mark
assessment score (which was
correlations between the Daily Planning sub-scale scores, the
work done during the year). The
the total Time Management Scale scores,
Confidence in Long-Term Planning sub-scale scores,
shown in Table 4. These correlations indicate
and these measures of academic performance are
of time management scores and
that there is very little relationship between these sets
of study.
academic outcomes at the end of the first year
Table 4 about here
Multiple Regression Analysis
between the time management scores and
Having assessed the bi-variate relationships
made using stepwise multiple
the measures of academic performance an attempt was
time management scales to predict academic
regression to examine the relative ability of the
performance.
in Long Term Planning scores were
The Daily Planning scores and the Confidence
course-work performance, and overall academic
used to predict examination performance,
for the total sample (men and
performance. These analyses were carried out separately
( 74 men 208 women).
complete data on all these measures
women together) who provided
Confidence in Long Term Planning sub-scale
To summarise briefly the results: the
sample, the men and the
the examination scores for the total
scores significantly predicted
predicted the course-
in Long Term Planning scores significantly
women; and the Confidence
The
the total sample and for the women.
work scores and the overall assessment scores for
Measuring time-management skills
9
in the dependent variable (academic
adjusted R2, which measures the proportion of variance
independent variable (Confidence in
performance) accounted for by the statistically significant
and varied from .016 to .038. This indicated
Long Term Planning score), was always small
academic performance was accounted for by
that between 1.6% and 3.8% of the variance in
in none of the nine separate analyses did
Confidence in Long Term Planning scores. However,
predict academic achievement.
the Daily Planning score significantly
in Long Term Planning scores
We may conclude from these analyses that Confidence
academic performance which is more
have a small but statistically significant effect on
noticable for women students than it is for men.
Discussion
Britton and Tesser in the following
The results of our study qualify the findings of
ways:
slightly shorter scale) suggests that two
(1) Our study (with a larger sample size, and a
for students - Daily Planning, and Confidence
components are important in time management
(Short Range Planning, Long Range Planning
in Long Term Planning - rather than the three
In the present study, these two
and Time Attitudes) suggested by Britton and Tesser.
accounted for
variance compared with 36% of variance
components account for 44% of the
by Britton and Tesser's three components.
and women students separately in their
(2) Britton and Tesser did not report analyses for men
the men
students scored significantly higher than
study. The present study shows that women
These results on
of the questionnaire (and, thus, overall).
on the Daily Planning sub-scale
(1990) and with other studies of gender
daily planning tie in with those of Macan et al.
1993,
(e.g. see Stricker, Rock & Burton,
differences in planning and academic performance
and Warrick & Naglieri, 1993).
between scores on their Time
(3) Britton and Tesser found the following correlations
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