More than Traits? Time Perspective, Academic Achievement, and Educational Expectations Among Adolescents

In the current study, we examined the associations between four time perspective constructs (time attitudes, time frequency, time relation, and time orientation) and two academic outcomes (self-reported academic achievement and educational expectations), controlling for the Big Five personality traits and demographics (age, gender, and maternal education). Participants included 758 adolescents (Mage = 15.81, SDage = 1.22) from the Western United States. Several subscales had associations with academic achievement and educational expectations above and beyond personality. Specifically, negative attitudes toward the future were negatively associated with academic achievement, and positive attitudes toward the future were positively associated with educational expectations. Present negative attitudes were also significantly associated with academic achievement, though this association was not practically meaningful. The remaining time attitude subscales, time frequency, time relation, and time orientation did not survive Bonferroni correction. Overall, the effect sizes were limited for most of the identified statistically significant associations, suggesting minimal practical significance. These findings identify specific time perspective dimensions that may warrant further longitudinal and intervention research to evaluate their potential role in promoting academic outcomes among adolescents.