Time Management Skills of College Students: How Time Constraint Affects Stress Levels

1
Time Management Skills of College Students How
Time Constraint Affects Stress Levels

• Kathryn E. Moorstein
• Fort Lewis College

2
Theorists Previous Research

• Lay Schouwenburg
• Bond Feather
• Britton Tesser
• Brantley, Waggoner, Jones Rappaport

3
Lay Schouwenburg (1993)

• Trait Procrastination, Time Management, and
  Academic Behavior
• Definition of time management
• Hypothesis and experimental design
• Findings and relevance

4
Bond Feather (1988)

• Some Correlates of Structure and Purpose in the
  Use of Time
• Time Structure Questionnaire
• Report of findings
• Relevance

5
Britton Tesser (1991)

• Effects of Time-Management Practices on College
  Grades
• Time-Management Questionnaire
• Hypotheses and Experimental Design
• Report of findings
• Relevance

6
Brantley, Waggoner, Jones Rappaport (1987)

• A Daily Stress Inventory Development,
  Reliability, and Validity
• Description of DSI
• Reliability Validity
• Relevance

7
Research Question Where will highest stress
levels exist?

• Directional hypotheses
• Students with low time management skills will
  have higher stress levels than students with high
  time management skills, regardless of the
  presence or absence of a time constraint
• Students with low time management skills under a
  time constraint will have the highest stress
  levels of all other conditions (students with
  high time management skills will have lowest
  stress levels)

8
Descriptive Statistics
Gender 30.2 Male (n 16) 69.8 Female (n
37) Age M 20.21 years, 41.5 19 years (n 22)
9
Sample TM Assessment
Time Management Questionnaire
  Please read the following 18 questions and
circle Yes or No next to each in response.
Please answer as truthfully as possible.   1. Do
you make a list of the things you have to do each
day? YES NO   2. Do you regularly review your
class notes, even when a test is not
imminent? YES NO   3. Do you often find yourself
doing things which interfere with your schoolwork
simply because you hate to say No to
people? YES NO   4. Do you continue unprofitable
routines or activities? YES NO   5. Do you plan
your day before you start it? YES NO   6. The
night before a major assignment is due, are you
usually still working on it? YES NO
10
Scoring and Placement into Conditions

• 5 points- yes 1 point no
• Questions 3,4,6, reverse coded
• Max 100 pts Min 20 pts
• Low TM skills 20-60 pts
• High TM skills 61-100 pts
• Random assignment into conditions after skill
  level assessed

11
Instructions Sheet Time Constraint
Thank you again for your participation in this
study.   You have 10 minutes to complete the
questions contained in this study. Please do not
rush through each question but rather please
think each question through thoroughly before
moving on to the next question and/or section.
The researcher will not inform you of how much
time remains or when 10 minutes has passed it is
your responsibility to keep track of the
time.   Accuracy as well as efficiency are taken
into account when scoring.   At the top of the
first page, please look at the clock and record
the time that you begin in the space provided.
At the end of the task, please again look at the
clock and record your ending time in the space
provided.   When you have finished or the 10
minutes is complete, please turn your paper over
and wait quietly for the other participants to
finish.
12
Instructions Sheet No Time Constraint
Thank you again for your participation in this
study.   Please spend as much time as necessary
to complete the questions contained in this
study. You may take as long as necessary to
complete this task up to 30 minutes. Please think
each question through thoroughly before moving on
to the next question and/or section.   Accuracy
as well as efficiency are taken into account when
scoring.   At the top of the first page, please
look at the clock and record the time that you
begin in the space provided. At the end of the
task, please again look at the clock and record
your ending time in the space provided.   When
you have finished, please turn your paper over
and wait quietly for the other participants to
finish.
13
Sample of Task Part 1
START TIME __________________   I.                
     The following is a list of 25 words
consisting of 4 to 5 letters with their letters
scrambled. Please unscramble as many of the words
as you can and write them in the space provided.
Unscramble no less that 15 words before moving on
to the next section.   1.     sotl
_________________ 2.     renud _______________ 3. 
    neog ________________ 4.     vewa
________________ 5. kroje ________________
14
Task Part 2
I.                     Using the words you
unscrambled on the previous page, please place as
many as you can into the most appropriate
definition in the space provided. You may
reference the previous page but may not add to
your answers on the previous page. Complete no
less than 8 sentences before continuing on to the
next section. These definitions are in no
particular order.   You may look back to the
previous section for help, but please do not look
to the next section until youve completed
section II.   1.     Someone who says or does
things to provoke laughter. _____________ 2.    
Spun fiber for weaving or knitting.
________________ 3.     Visual counterpart of an
object formed by a lens or mirror.
________________ 4.     Lacking feeling.
_______________
15
Task Part 3
I.                     Using the words that you
unscrambled in Section I and matched with
definitions in Section II, please create as many
new words as you can by rearranging the orders of
the letters. You may reference the previous pages
but may not add to your answers on the previous
pages. You do not have to use every letter of the
word.   For example The word race can be
rearranged to spell care, car, ear, ace,
etc.   Please use no less than 4 of the words
used to complete sentences in Section II and
write your answers in the spaces provided.
Please use the back of this page if you need
additional space.   1.     original word
__________________ recombinant words
__________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
END TIME ___________________________
16
Final Stage Stress Assessment
Stress Inventory
  Below are listed a variety of events that may
be viewed as stressful or unpleasant. Read each
item carefully and decide whether or not you
experienced that event while completing the prior
task. If the event did not occur, place an X
in the space next to the item. If the event did
occur, indicate the amount of stress that it
caused you by placing a number from 1 to 7 in the
space next to that item (see numbers below).
Please answer as honestly as you can and reflect
only upon the prior task when answering so that
we may obtain accurate information.   X did not
occur 1 occurred but was not stressful 2
caused very little stress 3 caused a little
stress 4 caused some stress 5 caused much
stress 6 caused very much stress 7 caused me
to panic  

• You performed poorly at task ____
• You performed poorly due to others ____
• You thought about unfinished work ____
• You hurried to meet deadline ____
• You were interrupted during task/activity ____
• Someone spoiled your completed task ____

17
Stress Inventory Scoring

• Three scores
• FREQ number of events reported having occurred
• SUM sum total of the impact ratings
• AIR average impact rating (SUM/FREQ)

18
Statistical Results
19
Variance in Results
20
Conclusions TM Skills Matter!

• Marginally significant main effect of TM skills
  on stress levels
• Suggests that low TM skills are related to higher
  stress levels
• Supports past research
• Implications

21
Further Research

• Investigate influence of TM skills on other
  constructs
• Stress levels of college students in general
  other influences besides TM skills