Poster #43 - The Healthiest Live in the Present and the Future: Time Perspective and Substance Use among Adolescents

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Adolescent substance use remains a serious public health concern. Adolescence marks the onset of substance use (YRBS, 2016) and many adolescents reporting having used alcohol (61%) or tobacco (28%) at least once by Grade 12 (Johnston et al., 2017). Time perspective has great potential to be an innovative mechanism to prevent adolescent substance use. Time perspective refers to thoughts and feelings about past, present, and future (Mello & Worrell, 2015; Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). Research with adults has shown associations with tobacco and marijuana use (Keough et al., 1999). Findings indicated that focusing more on the present and less on the future was associated with increased substance use. However, research on time perspective and substance use has yet to be conducted among adolescents because adolescent age-appropriate measures were not available. Recently, the Time Orientation Scale (TOS; Mello et al., 2013) was developed for time perspective in adolescents. The TOS assessed the preference for the past, present, and future. Research with the TOS and adolescents indicates that it is associated with self-esteem and academic achievement (Mello et al., 2013). Thus, the current study sought to contribute toward the field by examining the following research question: how is time perspective associated with substance use among adolescents?

Self-reported survey data included 790 adolescents (Mage = 15.8, SDage = 1.2). Time perspective was measured with the TOS (Mello et al., 2013). The TOS consists of seven circle configurations with circles of varying size (See Table 1 for illustration). Larger circles indicate an emphasis toward a particular time period. Substance use was determined by items asking “How frequently do you use the following drugs”: (1) marijuana, (2) tobacco, (3) alcohol, (4) cocaine/crack, (5) heroin, (6) methamphetamines, (7) psychedelics, (8) inhalants, and someone else’s prescription drugs. Response options ranged from 0 (never) to 4 (very often). A substance use variable was created by summing the number of substances used per participant.

Results indicated that participants who reported that they thought about multiple time periods equally also used fewer substances F(7,622) = 6.46, p < .001, R2 = .06, Cohen’s f = .13. Specifically, adolescents who were oriented toward both the present and the future (option #6 below) used the least number of substances (M = 1.28, SD = 1.64), followed by adolescents who were oriented toward all three time periods equally (option #7; M = 1.44, SD = 1.43). Adolescents who were oriented toward only the past used the most substances (option #1; M = 2.16, SD = 2.39). These analyses controlled for impulsivity.

Overall, this study showed a relationship between time perspective and substance use among adolescents. Findings indicated that adolescents who were oriented toward multiple time periods used fewer substances than adolescents who were oriented toward single time periods. Results suggest the importance of considering time perspective in additional research and the implications for this research in the prevention of substance use among adolescents. Ultimately, this information could be used to develop programs that use time perspective to identify adolescents who are at-risk of substance use.

Authors

• Julie Chandler, San Francisco State University
  Presenting Author

• Zena R. Mello, San Francisco State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura J Finan, Illinois State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sharon Lipperman-Kreda, Prevention Research Center, PIRE
  Non-Presenting Author