The Adolescent and Adult Time Inventory-Time Attitudes Scale: A Comprehensive Review and Meta-Analysis of Psychometric Studies

The exponential growth in studies demonstrating the utility of temporal psychology has been accompanied by many studies criticizing the psychometric properties of many of its assessment measures. The Adolescent (and Adult) Time Inventory-Time Attitudes Scale (AATI-TA) has been relatively immune to these criticisms. Given the increase in the use of this particular measure, we undertook a comprehensive review of studies assessing the psychometric validity and internal consistency of the AATI-TA. Computerized searches were conducted in Scopus, PsycINFO, and EMBASE databases, with 19 manuscripts ultimately retained, and data from a total of 29 samples analyzed. Results revealed that at a broad level, these analyses supported both the psychometric validity, and internal consistency of AATI-TA scores, with some minor issues identified with the Future Negative dimension. Meta-regression analyses revealed some small-sized but significant effects for age, language, and location on RMSEA, alpha values, and mean scores. However, these did not survive the Benjamini-Hochberg correction. Observed heterogeneity among studies has implications for any future creation of scale norms. Future directions for research include an exploration of the readability and appropriateness of Future Negative items, temporal stability of scores, and more psychometric studies with adult samples.