Constructing the Children’s Future Thinking Questionnaire: A reliable and valid measure of children’s future-oriented cognition.

Abstract

Future-oriented cognition (planning, prospective memory, episodic foresight, saving, and delay of gratification) involves a critical set of skills that children must develop for successful daily functioning. The current study developed the Children's Future Thinking Questionnaire (CFTQ), a parent-report on 3-to 7-year-olds' future-oriented cognition. The CFTQ showed high internal consistency and detected development of future-oriented cognition (Study 1; N = 145). Study 2 (N = 255) showed high internal consistency reliability and preliminary validity of the CFTQ. Study 3 (N = 101) confirmed strong reliability and validity of the CFTQ. Study 4 (N = 105) revealed excellent test-retest reliability of the CFTQ. Thus, the CFTQ is the first reliable and valid parent-report measure of children's developing future-oriented cognitive abilities.

Future-Oriented Thinking: Saving, Prospective Memory, and Planning in Young Children

“…Further, none of the behavioural measures (aside from one measure of episodic foresight) was significantly correlated with the parent questionnaire after age and general language ability were controlled for. Mazachowsky and Mahy (2020) further found that results from the questionnaire were correlated with age, suggesting, as previous studies had found, that performance on these types of tasks improve with age, thus finding further support for their questionnaire. Despite the lack of statistically significant findings regarding the correlations between the behavioural measures and the parent questionnaire, all of the correlations were in the direction the researchers expected, which was interpreted to mean that the findings provide evidence that the questionnaire is a valid measure of future-oriented thinking in children.…”

“…To the best of my knowledge, there appears to be only two studies which measure both saving and PM among preschoolers (Chernyak et al, 2017;Mazachowsky & Mahy, 2020). Chernyak et al (2017) and Mazachowsky and Mahy (2020) do not report the relation between the saving and PM tasks, so no conclusions can be drawn about the relation between the two future-oriented skills. The study conducted by Mazachowsky and Mahy (2020) was described above.…”

“…Recall that saving refers to avoiding the immediate consumption of a resource in the present so that it can be used in the future (Metcalf and Atance, 2011). Though quite limited in number, studies employing a variety of saving measures have shown that children under the age of five are able to save in some capacity (e.g., Atance et al, 2017;Kamawar et al, 2019;Lee & Carlson, 2015;Mazachowsky & Mahy, 2020;Metcalf & Atance, 2011). The research that currently exists in this area now be discussed.…”

“…Mahy and Moses (2015) noted a relation between planning and PM, but only when a difficult filler task was used between when the instructions for the task were given and when the task began. Further, Chernyak et al (2017) and Mazachowsky and Mahy (2020), to my knowledge, conducted the only studies in which both saving and PM in preschoolers was measured. Neither Chernyak et al SAVING, PROSPECTIVE MEMORY, AND PLANNING IN YOUNG CHILDREN (2017) nor Mazachowsky and Mahy (2020) report the results regarding the relation between saving and PM, therefore there is still uncertainty regarding their relation.…”

“…Further, Chernyak et al (2017) and Mazachowsky and Mahy (2020), to my knowledge, conducted the only studies in which both saving and PM in preschoolers was measured. Neither Chernyak et al SAVING, PROSPECTIVE MEMORY, AND PLANNING IN YOUNG CHILDREN (2017) nor Mazachowsky and Mahy (2020) report the results regarding the relation between saving and PM, therefore there is still uncertainty regarding their relation. This gap in the literature regarding the relation between saving, PM, and planning in young children has yet to be addressed.…”