Introduction:The mechanism behind how time perspective (TP) relates to subjective well-being is not fully understood and thinking styles might be potential mediators. However, our understanding of the relationship between thinking styles and subjective well-being is currently limited to adult studies. This study aims to extend the literature by examining the mediating role of thinking styles in the relationship between TP and subjective well-being in an adolescent sample. Methods: One hundred forty-nine male and one hundred and fourteen female secondary school students (13-18 years old) in Hong Kong responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory-Revised II (TSI-R2), the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and the Temporal Satisfaction with Life Scale (TSWLS) in two waves separated by 2 months in 2017. Results: After controlling for gender and TP, internal and external styles positively predicted positive affect and future life satisfaction after 2 months. Adaptive Type I hierarchical style positively predicted both positive and negative affect after 2 months, which supports the two-dimensional structure of affect. Unexpectedly, maladaptive Type II styles did not predict subjective well-being. Longitudinal mediation using cross-lagged panel model showed that thinking styles mediated three relationships between TP and subjective well-being. The internal style mediated the relationship between Past-Negative TP, positive affect, and future life satisfaction, while the external style mediated the relationship between Future TP and future life satisfaction. Conclusions: Thinking styles predicted adolescent subjective well-being and acted as mediators in the relationship between TPs and subjective well-being.
The present study demonstrated that an educational course designed to optimize the time perspective profile led to a significant increase in the adaptive judicial and external thinking style scores for the secondary school students in the experimental group compared with those in the control group.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.