A Meta-Analysis of the Convergent Validity of Self-Control Measures

By Angela L. Duckworth, Margaret L. Kern. Journal of Research in Personality, 2011

980 citations recorded by the source corpus.

There is extraordinary diversity in how the construct of self-control is operationalized in research studies. We meta-analytically examined evidence of convergent validity among executive function, delay of gratification, and self- and informant-report questionnaire measures of self-control. Overall, measures demonstrated moderate convergence (rrandom = .27 [95% CI = .24, .30]; rfixed = .34 [.33, .35], k = 282 samples, N = 33,564 participants), although there was substantial heterogeneity in the observed correlations. Correlations within and across types of self-control measures were strongest for informant-report questionnaires and weakest for executive function tasks. Questionnaires assessing sensation seeking impulses could be distinguished from questionnaires assessing processes of impulse regulation. We conclude that self-control is a coherent but multidimensional construct best assessed using multiple methods.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a7e55fadcde218a23e3bd14770414f1b44ef6b0d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Self-Regulation and School Success (2013, background): “However, a recent meta-analysis suggests that in general, correlations between individual executive function tasks and questionnaire measures of self-control are small in size (e.g., r = .14 with informant-report ratings; Duckworth & Kern, 2011 ).”
Reported self-control is not meaningfully associated with inhibition-related executive function: A Bayesian analysis (2018, background): “That all these measures relate to a common construct called self-control has been assumed often by facevalidity (e.g., “I am good at resisting temptations”; Stroop performance requires inhibiting word-reading), but seldom investigated empirically (cf., Duckworth & Kern, 2011).”
Self-regulation in childhood as a predictor of future outcomes: A meta-analytic review. (2020, methodology): “…validity of self-regulation measures indicated only moderate convergence and substantial heterogeneity between measures, with correlations between self-control measures typically below r = .20 (Duckworth & Kern, 2011; also see Malanchini, Engelhardt, Grotzinger, Harden, & TuckerDrob, 2018).”
Measurement Matters: Assessing Personal Qualities Other Than Cognitive Ability for Educational Purposes (2015, background): “Task impurity is thought to be one reason why performance tasks assessing executive function are only weakly correlated with questionnaire measures of self-control (Duckworth & Kern, 2011; Sharma, Markon, & Clark, 2014).”
Situational Strategies for Self-Control (2016, background): “This stricture in the standard administration procedures may explain why correlations between executive function and questionnaire measures of self-control are minute (e.g., Duckworth & Kern, 2011; Sharma, Markon, & Clark, 2014).”
Whatever Happened to Self-Control? A Proposal for Integrating Notions From Trait Self-Control Studies Into State Self-Control Research (2017, neutral): “These assumptions are dubious given the low convergence between self-report measures and behavioral measures of trait self-control (Duckworth & Kern, 2011).”
The past, present, and future of ego depletion (2019, background): “There is a host of different self-control-related dependent variables that only share a small common core (Duckworth & Kern, 2011; Saunders, Milyavskaya, Etz, Randles, & Inzlicht, 2018).”
Animal personality: what are behavioural ecologists measuring? (2013, methodology): “These traits could then form the basis of a general framework for the study of animal personality (Duckworth & Kern, 2011).”
Resisting Everything except Temptation: Evidence and an Explanation for Domain–specific Impulsivity (2012, methodology): “1The terms impulsivity and self-control are used differently by different authors (Duckworth & Kern, 2011).”
The impact of non-cognitive skills on outcomes for young people. A literature review. (2013, background): “According to Duckworth and Kern (2011), more than 3% of all publications are indexed in the PsycInfo database by the keywords self-control and its related terms including self-discipline, delay of gratification, self-regulation, and impulse control.”
Locus of control and the labor market (2015, neutral): “In their meta-analysis, for example, Duckworth and Kern (2011) identify over 100 unique self- and informant-reported questionnaires designed to measure self-control either on its own or as a subscale of broader personality inventories.”
Temperament in the Classroom (2012, neutral): “…of prepotent impulses, and/or working memory, demonstrate reliable associations between task performance and caregiver ratings of effortful control (Duckworth & Kern, 2011), and independent measures of these two constructs demonstrate similar developmental trajectories, increasing mono tonically…”
Effortless Self‐Control: A Novel Perspective on Response Conflict Strategies in Trait Self‐Control (2015, background): “However, self-report measures of trait self-control have shown convergent validity with behavioral measures such as executive control and delay of gratification tasks (Duckworth & Kern, 2011).”
The dual systems model: Review, reappraisal, and reaffirmation (2015, neutral): “Steinberg et al., 2008), despite being theoretically and empirically separable (Duckworth and Kern, 2011; Duckworth and Steinberg, 2015).”
Development of Indirect Measures of Conscientiousness: Combining a Facets Approach and Network Analysis (2015, background): “An important question for future research is whether a relationship between implicit conscientiousness facets and different aspects of self-control would emerge more clearly if nonverbal assessments of self-control were considered (e.g. Duckworth & Kern, 2011).”
Annual Research Review: On the relations among self-regulation, self-control, executive functioning, effortful control, cognitive control, impulsivity, risk-taking, and inhibition for developmental psychopathology (2016, neutral): “…been used in the social and other literatures in a broad sense to refer to voluntary cognition and behavior or effectively, top-down aspects of SR (Duckworth & Kern, 2011; Fujita, 2011); here it encompasses also control strategies such as reappraisal, precommitment, and others Self-regulation:…”