Do Time Perspectives Predict School Performance Beyond Intelligence And Personality?

Individual differences in time perspectives (TPs) have often been analyzed in the context of educational achievement. But most studies have focused solely on future orientations, and the roles of other temporal perspectives have largely remained unexplored. Moreover, studies carried out to date have neglected the considerable overlap between TPs and personality. We provide an empirical analysis of the effects of TP dimensions on school performance as measured by junior high school final exam scores and high school first term grade point average (GPA), using a sample of 216 Polish high school students. Students' Future-Positive TP scores showed a significant positive correlation with their GPA, whereas inverse relationships with GPA were observed for Present-Hedonistic and Present-Fatalistic TPs. However, effects became nonsignificant when intelligence and Big Five personality dimension scores were controlled. Increasing Present-Fatalistic TP scores predicted poorer exam scores, and controlling for personality and cognitive capacity did not make this effect redundant. Also, more balanced TPs predicted greater GPAs. Our results provide some insight into the role of TPs in school performance. They also highlight redundancy between TP dimensions and personality, emphasizing the necessity to consider such potential redundancy when considering various psychological and behavioral outcomes.