Using cluster analysis of Adolescent Time Attitude Scale (ATAS) scores in a sample of 300 adolescents (M age = 16 years; SD = 1.25; 60% male; 41% European American; 25.3% Asian American; 11% African American; 10.3% Latino), the authors identified five time attitude profiles based on positive and negative attitudes toward the past, present, and future. Four of the profiles identified in the present study were conceptually similar to profiles that emerged in a study in a German sample. Adolescents with profiles characterized by higher positive attitudes than negative attitudes (i.e., Positive, Optimistic, and Balanced) reported more favorable educational and psychological outcomes than did adolescents with profiles marked by higher negative attitudes (i.e., Negative and Pessimistic). These findings provide support for the generalizability of time attitude profiles and the pattern of relationships between ATAS profiles and other constructs.
In the present study, we examined demographic differences in time attitudes in a sample of 293 adolescents. Time attitudes were measured using the Adolescent Time Attitude Scale (Mello & Worrell, 2007; Worrell, Mello, & Buhl, 2011), which assesses positive and negative attitudes toward the past, the present, and the future. Generally, African Americans and Asian Americans reported higher scores for negative time attitudes and lower scores for positive time attitudes than European Americans and Latinos, with medium sizes. Adolescents in the low socioeconomic status group reported a less favorable evaluation of their past than middle and high SES peers, but there were no meaningful differences in time attitudes by gender. Findings indicate that middle SES adolescents, high school juniors and seniors, Latinos, and European Americans had higher representation in positive time attitude clusters (i.e., Positives and Balanced) than high SES adolescents, high school freshmen and sophomores, and African Americans.
The psychological construct broadly known as time perspective is potentially useful in understanding a range of adolescent behaviours, including alcohol use. However, the utility of the construct has been hindered by measurement and conceptual problems. To date the vast majority of studies have assessed the relationship between time perspective and other measures in a variable‐focussed (correlational) rather than a person‐centred way. The present series of studies used a person‐centred approach to assess the relationship between temporal profiles and alcohol use in a large sample (n = 1620) of adolescents from High Schools in Northern Ireland. Although a ‘Balanced’ time perspective has been suggested as optimal, the present study suggests that having a ‘Future’ temporal profile is associated with less problematic use of alcohol, while having a ‘Past Negative’ or ‘Hedonist’ profile is associated with more problematic consumption. Results are discussed in the context of the time perspective and alcohol use literatures.
[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 29(7) of (see record 2016-47183-001). In the article, the affiliation for Michael T. McKay should be Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Over the last 20 years, the study of Temporal Psychology and its relationship with a range of psychosocial indicators has increased exponentially. The present study makes use of recent advances in analytic methods and uses statistical inference via longitudinal examination of latent profiles through Latent Transition Analyses (LTA). The first 2 available waves of data from a longitudinal study in the United Kingdom were used to assess the following: (a) the factor structure of Adolescent Time Inventory-Time Attitudes Scale (ATAS) scores at Waves 1 and 2, (b) the viability of time attitudes profiles based on ATAS scores at both time points, (c) the degree of stability and/or transition between membership of these profiles at +12 months, and (d) the relationship between profiles and scores on 4 distal outcomes, including academic, social and emotional self-efficacy, and sensation seeking. Four latent profiles called Positives, Ambivalents, Negatives, and Negative-Futures were identified and their relationship with the 4 distal outcomes was examined. Results showed that time attitude profiles were unstable across the first year of high school. Furthermore, instability was explained by transitions to more negative profiles, and these transitions were associated with unfavorable outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record
Many researchers have shown the importance of parent attachment in childhood and adolescence. The present study extends the attachment literature to African Americans involved in the juvenile justice system (N = 213), and provides an initial inquiry using person-oriented methods. The average age was 16.17 years (SD = 1.44), and the sample was predominantly male (71%). Results of a confirmatory factor analysis of Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment-Short Form (IPPA-S) scores supported a 3-factor model: (a) Communication, (b) Trust, and (c) Alienation. Model-based clustering was applied to IPPA-S scores, and results pointed to 4 perceived parental security profiles: high security, moderately high security, moderately low security, and low security. In keeping with our hypotheses, IPPA-S profiles were associated with prosocial behaviors, depression, anxiety, and oppositional defiance. Contrary to hypotheses, IPPA-S profiles were not associated with perspective taking, emotional concern, or behaviors characteristic of a conduct disorder. Results also showed that gender, age, family member with whom the participant resides, charge severity, and offense history did not have an effect on IPPA-S clustering. Implications for therapeutic jurisprudence in African Americans involved with the juvenile justice system are provided.
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