The Reliability and Validity of the Children\u27s Conscientiousness And Procrastination Scale

The purpose of the present study was to further examine the reliability and validity of a self-report measure of procrastination and conscientiousness for elementary-aged children. The research participants were 120 male and female students in grades 3-5, drawn from two different schools. The Children\u27s Conscientiousness and Procrastination Scales (CCAPS; Lay, Kovacs, & Danto, 1998) exhibited high internal consistencies. Procrastination and Conscientiousness were highly, negatively related, consistent with previous research with related measures and with adult samples. Teacher and parent ratings of students were moderately correlated with the student\u27s self-reports, thereby providing support for the convergent validity of the self-report measure. Both procrastination and conscientiousness correlated with a self-report measure of anxiety (the Revised Children\u27s Manifest Anxiety Scale; Reynolds & Richmond, 1978), specifically with social concerns and concentration subscales. Procrastination and conscientiousness related moderately to task orientation and avoidance orientation on a scale measuring achievement motivation (Goal Orientation Scales; Skaalvik, 1997). These correlations provide support for the divergent validity of the CCAPS. It was concluded that the CCAPS appears to be an adequate measure of procrastination and conscientiousness, although more research needs to be done to further establish the reliability and validity of the scale