Future Time Perspectives of Adolescents in India and The United States

A review of event-listing research suggests that longer time perspective is associated with more favorable characteristics including higher socio-economic level. The major samples consisted of approximately 100 boys and 80 girls each in ninth grades in small towns in India and America. They did not show significant differences on median time attributed to seven expected life events, though Indian boys showed greater diversity. In smaller samples in large cities, high socio-economic groups had longer time spans, but again nationality and sex differences did not appear. Content analysis showed a greater American emphasis on leisure and one's own courtship, marriage, and children, while a greater Indian emphasis was placed on other's courtship, marriage, and children, other's deaths and health. For further work, the authors suggested the study of individual meanings attached to this aspect of life perspective and planning.