Morningness–eveningness and amplitude – development and validation of an improved composite scale to measure circadian preference and stability (MESSi)

Abstract

Measuring morningness-eveningness is an important aspect of individual differences because it is associated with many aspects of personality and health. The present study outlines recent advancements in the field of measurement and proposes an improved assessment of morningness-eveningness, such as the measurement of circadian amplitude, updating and reflecting new item developments, addressing the clock time based measures, the morning-biased items and the aspect of uni versus multidimensionality. Four studies have been carried out in Germany to present a novel development (with a total sample of N = 1181). In study I, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed three dimensions, one of morningness, one of eveningness and one of amplitude/stability. Then, items were reduced to present a clearer factor structure by removing ambiguous items. In the second study, a shortened questionnaire was applied, with 15 items (5 per construct), but Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) did not provide acceptable fit indices. Refining items were made in study III, which again showed a clearer factor structure in EFA, and subsequently, in study IV, the refined set of 15 items provided a good fit of a CFA. The final questionnaire was tested for validity by applying clock times, personality questions and alertness ratings. Thus, this newly developed questionnaire contains three distinct dimensions. To reflect the new content, the scale is labelled morningness-eveningness-stability-scale improved (MESSi).

Chronotype, Sleep Behavior, and the Big Five Personality Factors

“…However, recent findings proposed the multidimensional structure of chronotype with two or more dimensions, such as that morningness and eveningness are separate dimensions and not just the two poles of one continuum, as well as the aspect of amplitude/stability (e.g., Putilov, Donskaya, & Verevkin, 2015;Randler, Díaz-Morales, Rahafar, & Vollmer, 2016;Scherrer, Roberts, & Preckel, 2016). Similarly, sleep quality was measured with a single item, and future studies might use a more elaborated measurement.…”

Chronotype, Risk and Time Preferences, and Financial Behaviour

“…First, the sample included workers who have been working for 3 to 8 years and consequently, future studies could benefit from using a wider age spectrum. Second, the use of other measures of circadian rhythm, such as rMEQ [172] and MESSi [35] could potentially overcome the issue of unevenly distributed chronotypes in our Chinese samples. Third, it would be interesting to examine cultural and environmental differences with respect to our results and findings, such as in an individualism-oriented country and using culturally modified cut-off criteria of chronotypes, as proposed by Kerkhof [173] and Caci et al [174], in future studies.…”

Why Do Larks Perform Better At School Than Owls? The Mediating Effect Of Conscientiousness

“…These studies also revealed that most of the existing scales predominantly measure morningness. Some recent studies used circadian preference measures, which were based on a twodimensional conceptualization and accordingly assessed morningness and eveningness as two relatively independent dimensions (Lipnevich et al, in press;Scherrer et al, 2016;Putilov et al, 2015;Randler, Díaz-Morales, Rahafar, & Vollmer, 2016). Using confirmatory factor analyses, Scherrer et al (2016) and Randler et al (2016) demonstrated a good fit of models with morningness and eveningness as two separate dimensions of circadian preference.…”

“…Some recent studies used circadian preference measures, which were based on a twodimensional conceptualization and accordingly assessed morningness and eveningness as two relatively independent dimensions (Lipnevich et al, in press;Scherrer et al, 2016;Putilov et al, 2015;Randler, Díaz-Morales, Rahafar, & Vollmer, 2016). Using confirmatory factor analyses, Scherrer et al (2016) and Randler et al (2016) demonstrated a good fit of models with morningness and eveningness as two separate dimensions of circadian preference. The two-dimensional conceptualization of circadian preference represents correlations with academic achievement in a more differentiated way as it allows to investigate the relation of morningness and eveningness with academic achievement, separately (e.g., Preckel et al, 2011).…”

“…The two-dimensional conceptualization of circadian preference represents correlations with academic achievement in a more differentiated way as it allows to investigate the relation of morningness and eveningness with academic achievement, separately (e.g., Preckel et al, 2011). Examples for self-report questionnaires that measure morningness and eveningness as two separate dimensions are the "Lark-Owl Chronotype Indicator" (LOCI; Roberts, 1998) and the "morningness-eveningness-stabilityscale improved" (MESSi; Randler et al, 2016).…”