Demonstrating construct validity and reliability of an eight-item experienced time pressure scale in nine large studies

Abstract

Modern Western societies are believed to be characterized by a chronic lack of time. Yet, paradoxically, people in these societies have never worked less and have more leisure time than ever before. The lack of time is therefore mainly a subjective experience. Despite all attempts to measure this objectively an experienced time pressure scale seems more appropriate. Although such scales exist, they have hardly been assessed for their construct validity and reliability. This contribution evaluates the TOR Experienced Time pressure scale, an original eight-item scale translated from Dutch, in nine Belgian databases from 1999 to 2021 consisting of different research populations. It argues that a measure of experienced time pressure should consider the interrelated social changes in the things that we can, want, and need to do. Findings reveal that the proposed scale forms a single latent variable that measures experienced time pressure coherently across all databases and that it shows consistency in variation according to socio-demographic characteristics.