Hope, the perceived ability to execute envisioned paths to future goals, has been found to predict a host of academic outcomes (e.g., academic achievement, academic engagement, curiosity; Chen, 2020; Dixson, 2019). In addition, intervention studies have demonstrated that hope can be improved in as little as 90 minutes (Feldman & Dreher, 2012). However, most hope research is centered around examining hope as a global construct as opposed to focusing on its subscales, which would provide a more nuanced understanding of hopeful thinking (Dixson et al., 2017). In addition, previous examinations of profiles of hope have been cross-sectional and indicated uncertainty around the number of hope clusters that exist (i.e., three or four; Dixson, 2019; Dixson et al., 2017). In the current study, I examined the number of hope clusters in a sample as well as to what degree different profiles of hope relate to different academic-oriented psychosocial profiles.

The current sample consisted of a group of diverse high school students (Mage = 15.56 years, 44.8% White, 8.3% Asian American, 5.6% African American, 9.8% Hispanic, and 31.6% Multi-race/Other) from a Midwestern state. A K-means cluster analysis yielded four interpretable clusters of hope that were consistent with previous research (i.e., high hopers, high agency thinkers, high pathway thinkers, and low hopers; Dixson et al., 2017) and theory (Snyder, 2002). In addition, the different hope clusters reported different (i.e., 78% of the variable comparisons across clusters had at least a medium effect size) academic-oriented psychosocial profiles (i.e., made up of academic self-concept, goal-valuation, academic motivation, attitude toward mathematics, and academic self-efficacy), both cross-sectionally and across time. In general, across both time periods, the high hopers reported the most success-oriented profile, followed by the high agency and pathways thinkers, and then the low hopers. The high agency and pathway thinkers reported similar academic profiles.

Ethnic identity is a frequently studied construct in ethnic minorities and is often conceptualized in terms of exploration (i.e., seeking information about one’s group) and commitment (i.e., a feeling of belonging to one’s ethnic group). Adolescence is a developmental period in which there is increased exploration of identity. Time attitudes are individuals’ positive or negative feelings toward the past, present, and future. Positive-oriented profiles have been associated with adaptive outcomes and negative-oriented profiles have been associated with maladaptive outcomes. In this study, we examined the association between time attitude profiles and ethnic identity exploration and commitment in a sample of high achieving students in early (n = 447, M age = 13.1 years) and middle-adolescence (n = 491, M age = 15.3 years).

Cluster analyses yielded four groups labeled Negatives (n = 84), Pessimists (n = 240), Ambivalents (n = 321), and Positives (n = 293). We also divided adolescents into four ethnocultural groups: marginalized ethnic minorities (i.e., African American, Hispanic; n = 146), model minorities (e.g., Chinese American, Japanese American; n = 620), majority group members (i.e., European Americans; n = 88), and an Other group consisting of individuals who were multi-ethnic (n = 208). White adolescents reported lower ethnic identity exploration, commitment, and total scores than their peers (ds ≥ .57). Early and middle adolescents did not differ significantly or meaningfully on the identity variables and were combined for further analyses. ANOVAs indicated that Negatives had the lowest ethnic identity scores in all four ethnocultural groups, Positives had the highest ethnic identity in three groups (Other was the exception), and Pessimists and Ambivalents were generally between the Negatives and Positives. These findings suggest that time attitude profiles are strongly associated ethnic identity achievement, with positive attitudes toward time potentially facilitating ethnic identity exploration and commitment, and ultimately, achievement.

The Adolescent and Adult Time Inventory–Time Attitudes Scale (AATI-TA) has six subscales—Past Positive, Past Negative, Present Positive, Present Negative, Future Positive, and Future Negative—and is an index of emotional and evaluative feelings toward the time periods. Research indicates that individuals have time attitude profiles which can be positive or negative. As Iran has been under economic sanctions for a long time and these sanctions have had a negative impact on its population, we had questions about time attitudes there. First, would we find both positive- and negative-oriented profiles? Second, would the association between profile membership and life satisfaction be similar to profiles found in research in other countries? Third, how would percentages of individuals within time profiles differ across adolescents and young adults? Fourth, would profiles in Iran be similar to profiles found in other countries?

Our sample consisted of 387 adolescents (Mean-age = 17.11, SD = 1.75) and 378 young adults (Mean-age = 22.96, SD = 4.38) in Iran. Latent profile analyses (LPA) yielded five profiles (Positives, Optimists, Present Positives, Moderate Negatives, Extreme Negatives) in the university sample and four (Positives, Ambivalents, Moderate Negatives, Extreme Negatives) in the high school sample, with three profiles in common (Positives, Moderate Negatives, and. Extreme Negatives). Individuals in the present-oriented profiles reported considerably higher life satisfaction (Cohen’s d ≥ .40) than the negative-oriented profiles. Thirty percent of adolescents were Positives compared to 20% of young adults, and 25% of young adults were Moderate Negatives compared to 20% of adolescents. About 10% of both groups were Extreme Negatives, 35% of adolescents were Ambivalents, and 33% of young adults were Present Positives. At 35% and 40%, respectively, a greater percentage of Iranian adolescents and adults were in one of the negative profiles than in samples in Germany, New Zealand, and the US.

Research has demonstrated statistically significant and substantive relationships between time constructs and adaptive functioning, addictive behaviors, and mental health. However, most of these studies have been cross-sectional. Building on a small number of prospective studies, we will utilize data from a longitudinal cohort of adolescents in the United Kingdom to employ a latent profile mover/stayer analytical approach to investigate four inter-related questions:

1. To what extent are time attitudes stable over the course of high school, and to what degree is the stability/instability related to socio-demographic variables?
2. To what extent does time attitude profile membership relate to or predict changes in psychological constructs, including sensation seeking, and social, emotional, and academic self-efficacy?
3. To what extent does time attitudes profile membership predict the initiation and maintenance of addictive behaviors, including smoking, alcohol use, and cannabis use?
4. To what extent does time attitudes profile membership predict changes in other health-related outcomes including mental well-being, physical symptomatology, and psychological symptomatology?

The sample (» 2,500) were part of a larger cohort (» 11,000) participating in a school-based cluster randomized controlled trial of a school-based health intervention in schools in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. Data on time attitudes were gathered opportunistically as part of the larger data collection. The analyses for this presentation will cover a four-year developmental period (T1 to T4; M_age = 12.5, to 15.3 years), with distal health outcomes assessed also at +6 years from baseline. Based on analyses focused only on T1 and T2 (McKay et al., 2018; Wells et al., 2018), we hypothesized that (a) 33% to 40% of adolescents will have the same time attitude profiles over time, (b) that profile stability vs. moving to a different profile will predict different outcomes, with movement toward positive profiles resulting in more adaptive outcomes and vice versa.