Time Organization Patterns of Adolescents: Agreement between Self- Report and Parent Report

Abstract

Aims

Occupational therapy services include measurement and promotion of time organization as important for adolescents' daily life management and well-being into adulthood. This study examined the internal consistency reliability of the Time Organization and Participation Scale (TOPS) among adolescents and their parents, associations between time organization and age, gender differences in time organization, and agreement levels between adolescents' and parents' perceptions of time-organization abilities.

Methods

Seventy-five adolescents with typical development and their parents completed the TOPS self-report and parent versions.

Results

Both TOPS versions showed high internal consistency (.80–.94). No significant correlations were found between age and time-organization patterns. Girls self-reported significantly more emotional response following disorganization in time. Parents' total scores explained 52.1% of the variance in their children's total scores.

Conclusions

Adolescence, a critical transitional period of preparing for independent adult life, involves a continual interaction between person, occupation, and environment while using skills to organize in time. The TOPS’s self- and parent-reports are reliable and can raise awareness of time-organization deficiencies in daily activities and emotional consequences. The use of the TOPS to assess adolescents’ time-organization abilities can inform intervention design to help adolescents develop an awareness of their time use and foster their daily performance.

Keywords:

• Adolescents
• gender
• parents
• time organization
• TOPS questionnaire

Acknowledgements

We thank to the master's students in the department of occupational therapy, University of Haifa, Israel, who took part in this study

Disclosure Statement

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liron Lamash

Liron Lamash is a lecturer in the Dept. of Occupational Therapy, University of Haifa, Israel. Liron's research topics include: identity, autonomy and participation among children and adolescents with and without disabilities, as well as developing and evaluating assessments and interventions for this population.

Tsameret Ricon

Tsameret Ricon is a senior lecturer and head of Educational Counseling Program in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at Oranim Academic College of Education in Israel. Her research interests are in school psychology, parenting, stress, school counselors burnout and compassion fatigue and parents-school counselors relationships/interactions.

Sara Rosenblum

Sara Rosenblum is a full professor in the Dept. of Occupational Therapy and head of the laboratory for Complex Human Activity and Participation (CHAP), University of Haifa, Israel, with special interest in the characteristics of human daily function. Rosenblum aim to gain better insight into interactions between varied body functions (e.g., cognitive, motor, sensory), activity performance and participation abilities of people faced with functional deficits in everyday life.