Sex and social class as determinants of future orientation (time perspective) in adolescents.

Abstract

Hypotheses concerning the effects of sex and class On future orientation were tested on 100 boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 16. Future orientation was measured in various domains of life, constituting either private or public areas of concern (e.g., family, environment), on the dimensions of density (number oi hopes and fears voiced by the subject), extension, and optimism­ pessimism. As predicted, middle-class adolescents, as compared with lower­ class adolescents, voiced more hopes and fears relating to public life and fewer in the private sphere, and they manifested a more extended future orientation in the private as well as the public spheres. They also judged the distant future more optimistically in two out of three public areas of concern. The lower-class girls were more optimistic than the middle-class girls in the occupational domain. As predicted, ,the lower-class boys voiced more hopes and fears in the occupa{ional domain and manifested a more extended future orientation than the lower-class girls. On the other hand, the girls of both classes voiced more hopes and fears in the private sphere than ,the boys of either class. The results are interpreted through theories of socialization and role behavior. Time perspective may be defined as an indi­ vidual's cognitions concerning the content, placement, and unfolding of relevant events in his past, present, or future. Prior research has attempted to establish relationships be­ tween time perspective (especially as directed toward the future) and societal type (tradi­ tional vs. modern: Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961; Monks, 1967), social subgroups (e.g., deviance: Barndt & Johnson, 1955; Jessor, Graves, Hanson, & Jessor, 1968) and person­ ality characteristics (Platt, Eisenmann, De­ lisser, & Darbes, 1971; cf. also Doob, 1971). In the body of literature just mentioned, a frequent assumption has been that social and