Development and validation of the General Procrastination Scale (GPS-9): A short and reliable measure of trait procrastination

Trait procrastination is increasingly recognised as having relevance for a number of consequential outcomes, including health. However, research with clinical populations may be hindered by longer scales. The present research addresses this issue by developing and validating a short version of Lay's General Procrastination Scale (GPS), a widely used self-report measure of trait procrastination. Study 1 used factor analysis to reduce the 20-item GPS to 9 items across two large samples (N = 620, N = 920). In Study 2 the GPS-9 demonstrated very good internal consistency across 15 student, adult and chronic illness samples, with a meta-analysis of coefficient alpha finding an average reliability coefficient of 0.89 (Total N = 4492). The GPS-9 also demonstrated good test-retest reliability (r = 0.89), and the expected associations with variables known to be part of the nomological network of trait procrastination. Findings from the current research provide evidence that the GPS-9 is a brief, valid, and reliable measure of trait procrastination.