Feelings of Resource Constraints

What it measures

This scale measures how discontented a person feels, over a specified recent period, about the level of resources — broadly defined to include time, money, energy, mental bandwidth, food access, and social support — that he or she has been able to spend. Rifkin, Wight, and Cutright (2023) used it in a pilot study and Study 5B, creating the measure by drawing some ideas and phrasing from a related scale by Paley, Tully, and Sharma (2019).

Response format

7-point Likert (1=Not at all, 7=Very Much)

Scale items

• like you can do or spend as much as you like? (r)
• satisfied with your level of resources? (r)
• constrained in your ability to do things or spend resources?

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alphas were .87 and .89 for the pilot study and Study 5B, respectively (Rifkin, Wight, and Cutright 2023, pp. 347, 356). Validity was not discussed. Items follow the stem "To what extent have you felt..."; a time period of interest (e.g., week, month, year) should be specified in the blank in the directions. Items 1 and 2 are reverse-scored.

Citation

Rifkin, Jacqueline R., Kelley Gullo Wight, and Keisha M. Cutright (2023), "No Bandwidth to Self-Gift: How Feeling Constrained Discourages Self-Gifting," Journal of Consumer Research, 50 (2), 343-362.

Keywords