A sense of adulthood of young adults and their life satisfaction Mediation Role of Time Perspective

A SENSE OF ADULTHOOD OF YOUNG

ADULTS AND THEIR LIFE SATISFACTION

Mediation Role of Time Perspective

Anna Paszkowska-Rogacz

International conference

Life Designing and Career Counseling: Building Hope and Resilience

June 20-21-22, 2013, Padova-Italy

Examples of time perspective in philosophy and

literature - praise of the present

Søren Kierkegaard,

The Diary, 1854

"Who is running in the future is a coward, who in the past - a hedonist, and only the one who clings to the present, who wants to repeat it, this is a real human being"

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist ,

1988

„Because I do not live neither in the past nor in the future. For me only today exists and I do not care anything else. If ever

you manage to persist in the present, you will be a happy person”

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Temporal orientation (time perception)

Lewin (1951) - an individual’s behaviour does not rely completely on the present situation but rather also upon hopes in the future as well as views on the past

Nuttin (1985) – subject preferred thoughts and actions directed at one of the three dimensions of time: past, present and future

Block (1990) – time-space of an individual consists of subject concepts relating to past, present and future

Suddendorf & Corbalis (1997) - mental time travel to the past and to the future is a uniquely human characteristic

Nosal and Bajcar (2004) – expresses not only an individual involvement and focus on the past, present or future, but also indicates a range and organisation of the subject activty

Passive aspect – time passing feeling

Active aspect – influence on behaviour

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Time perspective - Zimbardo and Boyd, 1999,

2005)

Often non-conscious process whereby the continual flows of

personal and social experiences are assigned to temporal

categories, or time frames, that help to give order, coherence,

and meaning to those events - six time perspectives:

Past-negative and past-positive

Present-fatalistic and present-hedonistic

Future

People may develop a temporal bias in which temporal zone

is habitually emphasized in life satisfaction

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Time is a key element of the formulation of objectives, including of career planning, especially future orientation:

Crites (1965), Savickas (2002), Super (1974) – role of the future time perspective in achieving goals

Savickas, Silling & Schwartz (1984) , Marko & Savickas (1998), Janeiro (2010) - future time perspective , career maturity, and career planning

Lenning (1995) - future orientation predicted career maturity when controlling locus of control and self-efficacy

Ferrari, Nota & Soresi (2010) - future orientation – less indecisiveness and higher school achievement

Paszkowska-Rogacz (2012):

Career readiness of high-school youths and their temporal orientation (2012)

The study revealed that time perspectives strongly inhibiting career readiness are:

Past-negative

Present-fatalist

Time perspective in career planning

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Conclusions from the studies

Quoted studies indicate that temporal orientation is a factor

forming relationships with many variables and, therefore,

it seems to be crucial for understanding personal behaviour,

integrity and also career maturity.

Even though past, present, and future temporal zones exert

a good deal on a variety behaviors and psychological

processes, vocational psychology has focused primarily

on future time perspective in relation to understanding

the career decision-making process.

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What is the range and the direction of relationships between two dimension of the sense of adulthood (the sense adulthood as a task and as a limit) and the life satisfaction of young adults?

How the various temporal orientations mediate these relationships?

Research motivations

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Who are the YOUNG ADULTS?

The group between 20 – 35 (Brzezińska, 2008; Harwas-

Napierała & Trempała 2010) or 25-45 (Super, 1994)

Developmental tasks (Erikson, 1968, Havinghurts, 1953,

Levinson 1986 , Newman & Newman 1984 , White, 1975):

Choosing a partner and co-existence learning together

Having a family and raising children

House keeping

Start of working life

Acceptance of civic responsibility

Finding a related social group

Focus on the future

Determining the level of aspiration

Setting life objectives

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The sens of adulthood as a psychological

dimension

Early adulthood in terms of tasks and limits (Super,

1984, 1994; Carver, Sutton & Scheier, 2000):

willingness to undertake and carry out the life tasks

sense of finding one's place in the adult world

crystallization of his/her own identity

distance from the family of the origin home

loss of contacts with peers

less time for hobbies

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Life satisfaction

The sense of satisfaction with achievements and living

conditions

There is a positive relationship between the level of

satisfaction with life, and:

self-esteem (Diener, 1985, Rosenberg, 1989)

dispositional optimism, perception of stress, controlling anger (Cohen,

Kamarck, Mermelstein, 1983)

early adulthood (Diener, 1985; Heckhausen, 1999, Oleś, 2011)

There is a negative relationship between the level of

satisfaction with life, and:

neuroticism and emotionality (Diener, 1985)

the experience of time (Kowalik, 1994; Zielinska, 2002)

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The hipothesis (1, 2)

1. Sense of adulthood:

as a limit will be significantly related to negative time perspectives

(past-negative and present-fatalistic)

as a task will be significantly related to positive time perspectives

(past-positive, present-hedonistic, and future)

2. There will be a significant correlation between sense of

adulthood:

as a task and satisfaction of life - positive

as limit and satisfaction of life - negative

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The hipothesis (3)

3. Time perspectives will mediate the relation between

sense of adulthood dimensions and satisfaction with

life:

when sense of adulthood as a limit increases:

negative time perspectives will also increase and increased negative

time perspective will be associated with lower satisfaction with life

positive time perspectives will decrease and decreased positive time

perspectives will be associated with lower satisfaction with life

when sense of adulthood as a task increases:

negative time perspectives will decrease and decreased negative

time perspective will be associated with higher satisfaction with life

positive time perspectives will increase and increased negative time

perspective will be associated with higher satisfaction with life

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The mediation model. Time perspectives mediate the relation between sense of adulthood and satisfaction with life .

X independent variables; W mediating variables; Y dependent variable.

Time perspectives (W)

Satisfaction with Life (Y)

Sens of Adulthood (X)

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Participants

208 individuals – 154 female and 54 male

Age: between 19 and 35 years (M = 23,45; SD = 3,17)

Education: MA – 122 (58, 7%), BA – 34 (16,3%), High

school– 49 (23,6%), Vocational – 3 (1,4%)

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Measures Dimensions No of

items

Cronbach's

alpha

coefficient

The Satisfaction with Life Scale – SWLS

(Diener, Emmons, Larson &Griffin, 1985;

Polish version - Juczyński, 2009)

5 .81

Sens of Adulthood Scale (Zagórska, 2004)

E.g.

• I feel fully prepared to work (task)

• Some of the possible ways of life are already

closed to me (limit)

as a task 10 .83

as a limit 6 .68

Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI)

(Zimbardo, Boyd, 1999, Polish version –

Marszał-Wiśniewska, 2012)

Past-negative 10 .82

Past-positive 9 .80

Present-hedonistic 15 .79

Present-fatalistic 9 .74

Future 13 .77

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Preliminary analyses - descriptive statistics

M SD

The Sens of Adulthood

Scale

as a limit (AL) 43.29 15.11

as a task (AP) 60.01 16.46

Zimbardo

Time Perspective Inventory

(ZTPI)

Past-negative (PN) 27.76 5.56

Present-hedonistic (PH) 47.69 6.70

Future (F) 42.90 5.96

Past-positive (PP) 25.37 3.72

Present-fatalistic (PF) 22.16 4.51

Satisfaction with Life Scale

(SWLS) 20.64 5.77

Note: All distributions are normal.

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Corelation matrix of variables used in the

mediation model

SWSL AT AL PN PP PH PF F

Satisfaction With Life Scale

(SWLS)

1

Adulthood as a task (AT) .382** 1

Adulthood as a limit (AL) -.353** .048 1

Past-negative (PN) -.447** -.314** .202** 1

Past-positive (PP) .302** .030 -.348** -.255 1

Present-hedonistic (PH) -.014 -.265** -.025 .070 .100 1

Present-fatalistic (PF) -.303** -.356** .117 .354** -.089 .340** 1

Future (F) .151* .316** -.149* .001 .005 -.304** -.325** 1

* p < .05. ** p < .01.

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Mediation analysis

Baron and Kenny’s (1986) causal steps approach

- 10 regression models were estimated:

1. Sense of adulthood as a limit and five time perspectives , and

their interaction were included as potential predictors of the

dependent variable satisfaction of life.

2. Sense of adulthood as a task and five time perspectives and

their interaction were included as potential predictors of the

dependent variable satisfaction of life.

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Results

The necessary relations for mediation were present for:

1. Past-negative and past-positive time perspectives as

mediators, when controlling sense of adulthood as a limit

the negative relationship between sense of adulthood as a limit and life

satisfactions will be stronger when past-negative time perspective is high

and when past-positive perspective is low

2. Past-negative and present-fatalistic time perspective as

mediators, when controlling sense of adulthood as a task

the positive relationship between sense of adulthood as a task and

satisfaction with life will be stronger when both negative time

perspectives are low

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Path coefficients for simple mediation analysis on satisfaction

with life (N = 205).

Past-negative time perspective

Satisfaction with Life

Sense of Adulthood as a limit

Note: Dotted line denotes the effect of sense of adulthood as a limit when past-negative time

perspective is not included as a mediator; β are standardized regression coefficients

**p < .01; ***p < .001; Sobel Z = -2.74, p = .006.

β = .19** β = -.40***

β = -.36***

β = -.28***

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Path coefficients for simple mediation analysis on satisfaction

with life (N = 205).

Past-positive time perspective

Satisfaction with Life

Sense of Adulthood as a limit

Note: Dotted line denotes the effect of sense of adulthood as a limit when past-positive time

perspective is not included as a mediator; β are standardized regression coefficients

_ **p < .01; ***p < .001; Sobel Z = -2.59, p = .01

β = -.32*** β = .22**

β = -.29***

β = -.36***

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Path coefficients for simple mediation analysis on satisfaction

with life (N = 205).

Past-negative time perspective

Satisfaction with Life

Sense of adulthood as a task

Note: Dotted line denotes the effect of sense of adulthood as a task when past-negative time

perspective is not included as a mediator; β are standardized regression coefficients

_ **p < .01; ***p < .001; Sobel Z = -3.85, p = .0001

β = -.30*** β = -.38***

β = -.38***

β = -.26***

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Path coefficients for simple mediation analysis on satisfaction

with life (N = 205).

Present-fatalistic time perspective

Satisfaction with Life

Sense of Adulthood as a task

Note: Dotted line denotes the effect of sense of adulthood as a task when present-fatalistic time

perspective is not included as a mediator; β are standardized regression coefficients

_ **p < .01; ***p < .001; Sobel Z = 2.56, p = .01

β = -.35*** β = -.20***

β = .38***

β = .31***

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Discussion (1)

The study revealed that:

Two types of the sense of the adulthood significantly predicted

satisfaction with life – sense of adulthood as a limit – negatively

and sense of adulthood as a task – positively

Of particular importance seems to be a sense of adulthood impact

on the past time perspectives - the past time is the perspective in which

the prototypes of cognitive and social functioning are shaping:

On the one hand, an individual observes and reproduces patterns

of action, solving a variety of problems, on the other hand the positive

and negative patterns of social and moral. The perception of the past

is therefore the result of adulthood.

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Discussion (2)

Evaluation of relationships between sense of adulthood and temporal

perspectives revealed various associations:

Sense of adulthood as a limit with past-negative and inversely with

past-positive time perspective

Sense of adulthood as a task with present-fatalistic and inversely with

past-negative time perspective

This is consistent with the results of the previous research (Diener, 1985;

Heckhausen, 1999, Oleś, 2011), and the relationship is inversely proportional -

the greater is the bias toward task, the lower the fatalistic attitude toward the

present. Mature interpretation own resourcefulness in meeting the tasks of

adulthood, has a significant impact on the perception of the present. They are

considered the most beneficial in functioning of an individual and realisation of

life-related tasks. However, these relationship are not as strong as one could

expect, based on research by Zimbardo and Boyd (1999)

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Discussion (3)

The time perspectives strongly inhibiting satisfaction with life

were:

Past-negative

Present-fatalist

According to Zimbardo and Boyd (2009), such individuals are not

scrupulous and not interested in their future. They do not seek

challenges because they poses neither the sense of personal

agency nor the ability to predict outcomes of their actions, they

believe in determinism.

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Limitation of the research

time perspective was assumed like to be a trait not

a process which actually is

one nation participants, which limits the

generalizability of the results

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Future research

The answer to the question, why the future time perspective is

insignificant as mediator

Analysis of relationships between variables in data sets by

structural equations modeling or canonical analysis –

examination how a balanced time perspective is associated

with life satisfaction

Inclusion of demographic variables as moderators in the

model

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THANK YOU!

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