Development and validation of the instant gratification scale in university academic tasks: evidence from exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis

Introduction We live in a society marked by the speed and immediacy of digital systems that cause an inclination towards instant gratification. This trend is having a direct impact on university contexts, affecting how students approach their academic tasks. Aim To design and validate an instant gratification scale in the context of university academic tasks (GI-12). Method An instrumental study was conducted with an intentionally non-probabilistic sample of 1,145 university students from both sexes across the three regions of Peru. The instrument was developed in 10 stages following the recommendation of experts in the field. The first version consisted of 27 items with response options in a five-point Likert format. The analysis aimed to assess content-based validity, internal structure-based validity, and reliability. Results All items proved to be clear, relevant, and representative (V .70). The analysis with AFE suggested an underlying structure of two factors: avoidance of prolonged effort (F1) and search for immediate gratification and distraction (F2), composed of 12 items (KMO = .91, Bartlett = p ≤ .001), with factor loadings greater than the cut-off .40 (.42 and.81). Subsequently, the AFC corroborated this structure (RMSEA = .041, SRMR = .045, CFI = .968). Regarding its reliability, it achieved an Omega coefficient of 0.88 for the first factor and 0.79 for the second factor. Conclusion The IG-12 presents its first psychometric evidence, which suggests that this tool is valid and reliable. In this way, it is the first measure with which the tendency to prefer immediate rewards over prolonged efforts required in the fulfillment of university academic tasks can be evaluated.