Psychometric validation of the Arabic version of the Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS)

Abstract

Background: Procrastination can be defined as voluntarily delaying or postponing a task that is often regarded as important or necessary to do. It often has short term benefits but high future burdens. The Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS) is a 9-item self-reporting scale that focuses on the implemental aspect of procrastination and are formulated in a simple and direct to the point form, making it easier for participants to express their opinion. No real effort was made to translate and provide procrastination scales to Arabic speaking populations and countries. The objectives of our study were to evaluate the validity of the Arabic version of IPS, assess its internal reliability and explore concurrent validity of the IPS based on patterns of correlations between procrastination and time perspectives. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from February to March 2023 and involved 341 participants from various regions of Lebanon. The Exploratory-to-Confirmatory (EFA-CFA) strategy was used to confirm the IPS validity. Results: The results from the EFA revealed a three-factor solution explaining 58.79% of the common variance. However, the CFA of the three-factor model obtained in the EFA indicated modest fit indices. An examination of the modification indices revealed that the item 6 cross loaded on two factors (above .48). Accordingly, a modified CFA model, omitting item 6 was applied; compared to the original one, the modified version indicated a significantly improved model fit. The internal reliability of the scale was good (α = .81 and ω = .83). Model fit for configural, metric and scalar invariance was shown. Higher time perspective dimensions’ scores, namely past negative, past positive, present fatalistic and present hedonistic, were significantly associated with higher irrational procrastination. Conclusion: The Arabic version of the IPS can be used as a screening tool to assess procrastination in an adult population.