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.

The study of Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) construct has increased substantively in recent years. Underlying these developments is the presumption that consideration of the future is uniform across all domains, and not a domain-specific construct.Building on work undertaken previously, the present study used 30 researcher-derived items to assess the domain specificity of consideration of the future in three large samples of adolescents in the United Kingdom. A psychometrically valid and reliable 18-item scale measuring consideration of the future in four domains emerged. Domain specificity was supported on two levels: a good fitting multidimensional model of CFC; and low to moderate factor correlations for the four domains measured by the 18-item scale. The study suggests that adolescents are considerate of future outcomes to different degrees, depending on the domain, and the implications of this with regard to future research are discussed.