Variation in How Frequently Adolescents Think about the Past, the Present, and the Future in Relation to Academic Achievement

In an effort to contribute information on the relationship between time perspective and academic outcomes, we examined the frequency with which adolescents’ reported thinking about the past, the present, and the future in relation to self-reported grade point average. Analyses of questions that assessed how often (i.e., never, monthly, weekly, and daily) adolescents thought about the past, the present, and the future yielded several findings: (a) about half of the adolescents’ reported thinking about each time period on a daily basis, (b) patterns of responses indicated that daily and weekly occurrences were the most common rate of thinking between time periods, and (c) the frequency with which adolescents’ reported thinking about the past predicted academic achievement, with more frequent thoughts about the past associated with higher academic achievement. Results are discussed in light of additional areas for research on time perspective.