Time Perspective in Relation to Academic Performance and Subjective Well-Being among Chinese Adolescents

Abstract

In an effort to contribute to the study on time perspective and its influence on adolescents, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between the time perspective and adolescents’ academic performance and time perspective and adolescents’ subjective well-being. In this study, time perspective has three dimensions, the past, present, and future, and is divided into time relation, time orientation, time frequency, and time attitudes. Subjective well-being consisted of four subscales to assess adolescents’ subjective well-being score, including the joy of learning, school connectedness, education purpose, and academic efficacy. A total of 379 students (176 males and 203 females) from seven middle and high schools in China participated in our study by responding to an online survey. The results showed that adolescents who think more frequently about the future and present and hold positive attitudes towards the present usually had better academic performance. Thinking more frequently about the present exerted a positive influence on adolescents’ subjective well-being. In contrast, past time perspective was not a major determining factor on either adolescent’s academic performance and subjective well-being.