Examining the role of time perspective in the promotion of healthy behavioral practices

Abstract

Past research has provided suggestive evidence that the tendency to consider future consequences of one's own actions (Strathman et al., 1996), or to be generally oriented towards the future (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999) should be conducive to healthy behavioral practices. In Studies 1 and 2, I developed and validated an individual differences measure of the dispositional tendency to focus on the short- versus long-term implications of one's own behavior, the Time Perspective Questionnaire (TPQ). As predicted, scores on the TPQ were positively correlated with an index of health behavior, and this association remained significant even after controlling for a conceptually related construct (impulsivity).

Studies 3 and 4 were designed to test the causal status of the observed association by experimentally manipulating time perspective using a minimal cognitive-behavioral intervention and observing the impact on health behavior. In Study 3, I designed a brief (three 1/2-hour weekly sessions) time perspective intervention to enhance long-term thinking about physical activity and examined its efficacy among a sample of young adults enrolled in fitness classes. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: time perspective intervention, goal-setting control intervention, and no treatment. Physical activity was assessed at pre-intervention, at post-intervention (3 weeks later), and at 7-week follow-up. Controlling for pre-intervention physical activity levels, time perspective participants reported larger increases in vigorous physical activity than the no treatment participants at both post-intervention and follow-up, and larger increases than goal-setting control participants at post-intervention. These behavioral effects were accompanied by increases in long-term thinking about exercise in the time perspective condition, relative to the other two conditions. This study provides the first experimental evidence that the effects of health behavior interventions may be enhanced by increasing participants' long-term time perspective, and that time perspective is causally associated with health behavior.

In Study 4, I tested the efficacy of the time perspective intervention on a larger sample of participants, and added a six-month follow-up measurement of physical activity. Again, significant effects emerged in favor of the time perspective intervention relative to the no treatment condition at post-intervention, and a trending effect at the six-month follow-up relative to the goal-setting control intervention.

Together, studies 1 and 4 attest to the importance of time perspective in promoting health behavior in general, and physical activity in particular.