Development Of College Students’ Pacing Style Scale And Its Relationship With Future Time Perspective And Self-Efficacy

People often need to complete a task or reach a goal over a period of time,whether it is writing a paper or preparing for an exam.Successful completion of a task not only depend on the effort expended,but also on the pace at which the task is completed.Previous research has focused on the phenomenon of procrastination,but the pallet of effort patterns that individual shows they proceed in a task is more diverse.How individuals allocate their tasks or effort over time relative to a deadline,known as pacing style,is closely related to task completion quality,creativity,and teamwork efficiency.Current research on pacing styles has limitations such as poorly defined concepts,confusing structural models,lack of valid measurement tools,and little knowledge of the factors that influence pacing style.Therefore,this study proposes to develop a pacing style scale to explore the possible factors influencing pacing style.This study consisted of three sub-studies.Study 1 initially conceptualized 5 dimensions of college students’ pacing styles through literature review and semi-structured interviews.Based on this,an initial questionnaire was developed.Through item analysis and factor analysis,3 dimensions were finally constructed to form the formal questionnaire,the pacing style scale had good reliability and validity.Study 2 was a cross-sectional study in which 562 college students were administered the future time perspective scale,the self-efficacy scale,and the pacing style scale developed by study 1 to investigate the relationship between the three variables.Study 3 used a longitudinal approach to measure future time perspective,self-efficacy,and pacing style in 265 participants at two time points,three months apart.The relationship between the T1 future time perspective and T2 pacing style,as well as the mediating role of T2 self-efficacy in the relationship were examined based on controlling for the T1 pacing style.The main results were as follow:(1)The pacing style scale for college students developed by study 1 contains 18 items,including 3 dimensions: early action pacing style,steady action pacing style,and deadline action pacing style.Among them,students with early action style tend to start their task early and quickly completing them at the beginning.Students with steady action style tend to start their task early and complete them in an organized manner.Students with deadline action pacing style tend to start later and quickly completing them before the deadline.The pacing style scale has good reliability and validity and can be used as a tool to measure the pacing style of college students.(2)The results of the cross-sectional study in study 2 showed that: future time perspective was positively related to early action pacing style and steady action pacing style,and negatively related to deadline action pacing style;self-efficacy was positively related to future time perspective;and future time perspective predicted pacing style through the mediating role of self-efficacy.(3)The longitudinal findings of study 3 showed that future time perspective was significantly related to the dimensions of pacing style,and self-efficacy played a key role in it.Future time perspective in T1 predicted T2 pacing style through the mediating role of T2 self-efficacy.T2 self-efficacy mediated the relationship between T1 future time perspective and T2 steady action style.There was no mediating effect of T2 self-efficacy between T1 future time perspective and T2 deadline action style.The study used literature analysis,semi-structured interviews and questionnaires to comprehensively explore the dimensional content and influence mechanisms of pacing style,which enriched the theoretical research in the field of temporal psychology.Combined with the actual situation of college students,the revised pacing style scale was compiled to validate the scale based measurement method,which provided a reliable measurement tool for the study of college students’ pacing style.The empirical study on future time perspective,self-efficacy and pacing style of college students helps them better understand their own pacing style,plan in advance,move closer to their ideal pacing style,and better accomplish the various tasks in their daily life.