The Hawaii time management scale and health related behaviors

Abstract

Good time management (TM) skills have been related to both physical and psychological health. This dissertation focused on the development of a content valid measure of TM to allow further exploration of this relationship. Such an instrument, in the future, could allow identification of specific TM skills related to specific health-related behaviors. In order to create this instrument and explore the relationship between it and health related variables, five studies were undertaken to: a) write items to assess all identified TM elements (Study l), b) submit these items to subject matter expert review for revision and removal of weaker items (Study 2), c) conduct an item analysis to remove weak items and provide a preliminary identification of the factors underlying TM skills (Study 3), d) explore the validity of the new TM instrument (Study 4), e) explore the relationship of the revised TM questionnaire to data from measures of health-related behaviors (Study 4), and f) explore the reliability of the new TM instrument in relation to test-retest data from already existing TM instruments (Study 5). The instrument resulting from this dissertation was more content valid than any previously identified instrument. Factor analysis of the resulting instrument suggested seven general groups of TM skills (Problem Solving/Goal Setting, Reminders, Not Wasting Time, Pleasure Activities/Breaks, Organization, Delegation, and Routines Predictability). Validity analyses provided support for relationships between TM skills and measures of physical and psychological health.