Time perspective and indecision in young and older adolescents

Career choices involve an orientation towards the future and the propensity to planning. The ‘mental picture’ of the past, present and future was defined by Savickas as time perspective. The present paper reports the findings of two studies examining time perspective in Italian adolescents. The first study surveyed 498 students aged 11–14 years, and the second, 657 students aged 15–18 years. Results from the first study showed higher levels of time perspective in girls and in older participants. The second study, however, confirmed these differences for gender only. Socioeconomic status (SES) showed little relationship to time perspective in both age groups. It also emerged that time perspective is positively related to school achievement and negatively to career indecision.