Auditor Independence, Experience, Time Pressure, Workload,and Financial Reporting Quality: Mediating Roles ofProfessional Scepticism and Risk Assessment

Audit quality remains a central concern in contemporary financial ecosystems, where public trust hinges upon the credibility of financial ‎disclosures and the ethical integrity of auditors. This study critically examines the indirect effects of auditor independence, experience, time ‎pressure, and workload on financial reporting quality through the mediating roles of professional scepticism and risk assessment. Drawing ‎on the critical-positivist paradigm, this research integrates behavioral, structural, and ethical dimensions to provide a holistic understanding ‎of how human and contextual factors interact to shape audit outcomes. Using a quantitative survey method with 178 professional auditors ‎and data analyzed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the findings reveal that professional scepticism and ‎risk assessment quality serve as significant mediators linking auditor attributes to financial reporting quality. Specifically, auditor experience, ‎time pressure, and workload exhibit strong indirect effects on reporting quality. At the same time, independence demonstrates a weaker, ‎statistically insignificant path—suggesting that institutional and client-related pressures may undermine formal autonomy. The results ‎highlight a paradox wherein professional scepticism, shaped by experience and workload, enhances audit quality yet remains vulnerable to ‎procedural fatigue and cognitive overload under excessive pressure. The findings underscore that audit quality transcends technical compliance; it embodies a form of ethical consciousness in which auditors must navigate the competing demands of independence, judgment, and ‎responsibility. The study contributes to the audit quality discourse by revealing that fostering reflective professional scepticism and managing a balanced workload are essential to sustaining the credibility of financial reporting in an increasingly complex audit environment.