Die 5-Item-Skala zur Messung der momentan verfügbaren Selbstkontrollkapazität (SMS-5) im Lern- und Leistungskontext: Eine Validierungsstudie

In achievement situations, individuals need to invest self-control in order to regulate their attention, thoughts, and emotions in a goal-directed manner. Research suggests that exerting self-control leads to decreasing self-control performance over time as a result of the short-term depletion of individuals’ state self-control capacity. In four studies, we validated a new version – the 5-item scale for measuring the momentary self-control capacity (SMS-5; English version available in Table 1) – of Ciarocco’s State Self-Control Capacity Scale (SSCCS) to assess changes in people’s perceived state self-control capacity (i.e., degree of perceived mental exhaustion) in achievement situations. Drawing on German samples of apprentices in vocational education and training (N = 2,395), tenth-graders (N = 129), and university students (N = 95; N = 140), we replicated the unidimensional internal structure of the SMS-5. Moreover, measurement invariance was supported for different groups of apprentices, for gender, and over time. The SMS-5 performed as well as the SSCCS in predicting achievement-related outcome variables and is a viable option for repeatedly assessing individuals’ perceived state self-control capacity and for tracking mental exhaustion over time.