Associations among health behaviors and time perspective in young adults: Model testing with boot-strapping replication

Previous research suggests that time perspective relates to health behavior; however, researchers have frequently employed inconsistent operational definitions and have often used projective or unpublished measures. The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory was created to provide a sound, objective measure of five distinct time perspective components. We examined the independent prediction of both risky and protective health behaviors from future, hedonistic, and fatalistic time perspective in 1,568 undergraduates using the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory. Health behaviors included alcohol, drug, tobacco, and seat belt use, sex behaviors, and exercise. Future time perspective was related to increased protective and decreased risky health behaviors, whereas hedonism exhibited an opposite pattern though was a stronger predictor; fatalism was related only to health-destructive behaviors. Gender interactions reveal that hedonism is a stronger predictor of risky health behaviors for females.