Time Attitudes Scores and Academic Outcomes in New Zealand Adolescents

• In Event: Time, Skin, and Class: Emerging Constructs in Human Development

Abstract

Time attitudes consist of individuals’ positive and negative feelings toward the past, present, and future (Mello & Worrell, 2015). Adolescence is an especially important period for examining time attitudes, as it is a period of identity formation that requires the integration of past, present, and future selves (Erikson, 1968). Worrell and Andretta (2019) reported that time attitudes were reported to several academic variables, such as academic self-concept, school belonging, and valuing education. In this study, we examined the relationship between time attitudes and academic variables in a mixed-gender sample of New Zealand adolescents. We hypothesized that (a) time attitude scores would be psychometrically sound in this sample, (b) scores on positive time attitude subscales would have positive associations with academic outcomes, and (c) scores on negative time attitude subscales would have negative associations with academic outcomes.

The sample consisted of 2,707 New Zealand secondary school students (1,014 male, 1,682 female, 11 missing responses) aged 13 to 18 (M = 14.84, SD = 1.37). Participants identified as being of European ancestry (n = 1,090; 40.3%), Pasifika (n = 790; 29.2%), Māori (n = 255; 9.4%), Asian (n = 489; 18.1%), and Other (n = 52; 1.9%), and they attended schools located in regions that differed in general SES levels. Time attitudes were measured using the 30-item Adolescent Time Inventory–Time Attitudes Scale (AATI-TA; Mello & Worrell, 2007) organized into six subscales: Past Positive (α = .84), Past Negative (α = .90), Present Positive (α = .87), Present Negative (α = .85), Future Positive (α = .88), and Future Negative (α = .87). Responses to each item ranged from 1 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). Subscale scores were calculated by taking the averages of participants’ item responses. Students self-reported their percentage grades in the past 12 months on a single six-point Likert scale item (1 = less than 40%, 2 = between 40% and 50%, 3 = between 50% and 60%, 4 = between 60% and 70%, 5 = between 70% and 80%, 6 = mostly above 80%) and their perceived academic self-ranking from 1 (among the worst) to 5 (among the best). They also reported how often they “wagged school” (slang for being absent without leave in New Zealand) or missed classes in the past 12 months on a five-point Likert scale and their feelings toward school and their teachers.

Results indicated that AATI-TA scores were reliable, structurally valid, and invariant by gender and ethnicity. Positive time attitudes had meaningful (i.e., ≥ .20) positive associations with attitudes toward school and teachers, but only Present Negative attitudes were negatively related to attitudes toward school (see Table 1). Present and Future Positive attitudes were positively and meaningfully related to academic ranking and Present and Future Negative attitudes were positively and meaningfully related to truancy. Future Negative attitudes were negatively and meaningfully related to school achievement. These findings suggest that time attitudes may be a useful intervention target for students at the secondary level, especially those who have low engagement in school.

Authors

• Raymond Quang Vo, University of California - Berkeley

• Christine Margaret Rubie-Davies, University of Auckland

• Mohamed Alansari, University of Auckland

• Frank C. Worrell, University of California - Berkeley