The Relationship Between Attitude Toward Time and the Presence of Meaning in Life

Abstract

The presented study was concerned with the relation between attitude toward time and the presence of meaning in life. Attitude toward time consists of temporal orientation and perception of time expressed through temporal metaphors. A group of 120 respondents took part in the study. They represented two groups: high school students in their final year, in the adolescence period (N = 60, mean age = 18), and university students in their final year, in the young adulthood period (N = 60, mean age = 24); both groups may be regarded as being at the turning point of their life, with important decisions concerning their future to be made. It was expected that the more positive attitude toward time was, the higher the experience of meaning in life would be. It was also hypothesized that the dimensions of attitude toward time would be determinants of the presence of meaning in life. To verify those assumptions, correlation and regression analyses were computed. As predicted, the more extended the time perspective was, the higher meaning in life people experienced. There was also a positive correlation between meaning in life and temporal organization of behavior (telicity, planning, detailness, and use of time). Furthermore, the perception of time as friendly correlated positively with meaning in life, and the perception of time as hostile revealed the opposite pattern. Some differences were also found regarding correlations with age. Young adults experienced greater meaning in life; their time perspective was more extended and better organized. Adolescents suffered from greater pressure of time and perceived their time in a more negative way than young adults did. The most significant predictors of the presence of meaning in life were low pressure of time, low hostile time, and high friendly time.