Time for a change: Temporal perspectives and health goals

- Extend beyond future perspective to include of past and present perspectives
- Present temporal perspectives showing associations with health goals
- Extend the investigation to the superordinate construct of health behavior change
- No age differences across adulthood, health goals may not vary with age groups
- Age-invariant process of how temporal perspectives relate to health change goals

Future time perspective influences the relations among age and health behaviors (Stahl & Patrick, 2012). However, past and present temporal perspectives may also play a role in the goals that people pursue. Whether age interacts with temporal perspectives to influence health goals has not been fully examined. Thus, the aim of the current study was to examine the associations among age, different temporal frames, and behavioral change goals related to health. We examined these questions using data provided by 253 adults, ages 18-87 years (M = 40.74, SD = 14.82). Results from mediational regression analyses showed that age and a full range of valenced temporal perspectives accounted for 12% of the variance in the number of health goals adults endorsed. Only positive present temporal perspective related directly to health goals. By using a broader measure of temporal frames simultaneously, we may have a more accurate view of temporal perspective in adulthood.