Survey research and design in psychology/Assessment/Survey/TUSSTMQ9

The University Student Satisfaction and
Time Management Questionnaire v.9

Description

The TUSSTMQ9 is a 98-item self-report questionnaire designed to explore and measure university students' satisfaction with university and university students' time management behaviour and skills. As of v. 6, the survey has also included measures of general life satisfaction and general health and well-being.

The survey has primarily been used as part of Survey research and design in psychology, a 3rd year psychology class exercise at the University of Canberra, but is also freely available for use and development by others.

Timeline of development

TUSMSQ1 (The University Student's Motivation & Satisfaction Questionnaire v.1) was developed in 2001 and used in 2001, 2004, and 2005.
TUSMSQ2 (The University Student's Motivation & Satisfaction Questionnaire v.2) was developed and used in 2008.
TUSMSLSQ3 (The University Student Motivation, Satisfaction, and Learning Self-Efficacy Questionnaire v. 3) was developed and used in 2008.
TUSSTMQ4 (The University Student Satisfaction and Time Management Questionnaire v.4) was developed and used in 2009.
TUSSTMQ5 (The University Student Satisfaction and Time Management Questionnaire v.5) was developed and used in 2010.
TUSSTMQ6 (The University Student Satisfaction and Time Management Questionnaire v.6) was developed in 2011 and used in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
TUSSTMQ7 (The University Student Satisfaction and Time Management Questionnaire v.7) was developed and used in 2014.
TUSSTMQ8 (The University Student Satisfaction and Time Management Questionnaire v.8) was developed and used in 2015.
TUSSTMQ9 (The University Student Satisfaction and Time Management Questionnaire v.9) was developed and used in 2016.

Sections

Background information

There are 12 background information items:

Demographics
1. Gender
2. Age
3. Survey research student status
4. International student status
5. Faculty
6. Credit points
7. % of degree complete
Stress and coping with university:
1. Stress
2. Coping
Time allocations: Hours per week doing:
1. Work
2. Classes
3. Study
Satisfaction (open ended items) about:
1. Most satisfying aspects of university experience
2. Least satisfying aspects of university experience

University student satisfaction

There are 37 university student satisfaction items which are measured on a 10-point Likert scale (from Extremely Dissatisfied to Extremely Satisfied). These items have been developed specifically for this survey.

Figure 1. Some possible university student satisfaction factors

Versions 1 to 4 revealed three reasonably robust university student satisfaction factors (Education/Teaching, Social, and Campus-related). However, the weakest factor (Campus) consisted of diverse aspects such as Library, Parking, and Information Technology and Administration. Thus, several new items were introduced in v.5 in an effort to strengthen and improve the measurement of campus-related factors whilst retaining the items related to Education/Teaching satisfaction and Social satisfaction factors.

Exploratory factor analysis of v.5 data suggested retaining the Education/Teaching and Social satisfaction factors but also suggested four possible additional factors emerging from the expansion of campus-related concepts (Admin/Student support/Flexibility, Technology/Library, Utility/Relevance, and Layout/Navigability).

Some items were eliminated and some were reworded for v.6 and v.7, with some minor changes to a couple of items in v.8 (e.g., the parking item was expanded to two items: parking availability and parking cost, and the lowest loading Teaching satisfaction item was removed.

For v.9, response scale labels were added for all 10 Likert scale response options. All items were retained, however the wording of 7 items (01, 03, 05, 13, 25, 28, and 32) was simplified.

For more background information, see University student satisfaction.

General life satisfaction

There are five general life satisfaction (GLS) items which are measured on a 7-point Likert scale (from Strongly Diagree to Strongly Agree). The GLS items were introduced in v.6 and are from Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale^[1].

Individual differences in university student satisfaction may be, in part, due to individual differences in general life satisfaction. Thus, to better understand student satisfaction, it could be helpful to consider the influence of broader life satisfaction.

It could also be meaningful to use GLS as a dependent variable and to examine the extent to which, for example, time management practices explain GLS.

For more background information, see General life satisfaction.

General health and well-being

There are eight general health and well-being (GHWB) items which are measured on a 7-point Likert scale (from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree). These items have been developed specifically for this survey. The items were introduced in v.6 to provide broader information about student psychological and physical health. These items could be useful as single items or possibly as a single factor or multiple factors (e.g., physical health and mental health).

From v.8, the response scale was changed from an 8-point Likert scale (False - Not like me to True - Like me) to a 7-point Likert scale (Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) (the same scale as used for General Life Satisfaction).

Gender role

There is one question about gender role which is measured on a 5-point Likert scale (from Very Feminine to Very Masculine). This item was introduced in v.8.

Researchers in psychology often use gender as an independent variable, however gender role may be more psychologically nuanced, meaningful and logically related to the dependent variable of interest.

For more information, see Gender role.

Time management

There are 28 time management items which are measured on an 8-point Likert scale (from False - Not Like Me to True - Like Me). These items have been developed specifically for this survey. Time management items were introduced in v.4.

Figure 2. Some possible time management factors

The factor structure of these items was somewhat unclear and they were retested in v.5, with the addition of one new item. Exploratory factor analysis of v.5 data suggested a potential three-factor structure: Time Management Effectiveness, Time Management Action, and Procrastination. Some items were eliminated and some items were reworded for v.6 (in particular, university-specific time management items were reworded or removed so that this became a general measure of time management behaviours) and a new item was added for v.7. The v.7 data suggested a possible four factor structure (Time Management Effectiveness, Procrastination, Planning, Meeting Deadlines). For v.8, to help emphasise this possible 4-factor structure, a new item was added for Planning and a low loading item was removed from Time Management Effectiveness.

For v.9, there were minor wording changes for 4 items (01, 02, 16, 22) and 2 items were replaced/rewritten (04, 27).

For more information, see time management dimensionality.

Psychometrics

There are no published psychometrics for this instrument because it has been, and continues to be, developed as part of a class exercise for Survey research and design in psychology.

Access to a class database of approximately 650 cases based on this instrument is available - see data download. Note, however, that this data needs to be screened and reverse coded prior to analysis.

References

↑ Diener, E. D., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.

[1] Diener, E. D., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.

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