The Role of Time Perspective and Mindfulness on Life Satisfaction in the United States of America, Spain, Poland and Japan: A Cross-Cultural Study

Lening A Olivera-Figueroa; Anna Muro; Albert Feliu-Soler; Yuta Chishima; Konrad S Jankowski; Michael Todd Allen; Richard J Servatius; Alexander Unger; Julie Papastamatelou

doi:10.1007/s12144-022-02756-1

The Role of Time Perspective and Mindfulness on Life Satisfaction in the United States of America, Spain, Poland and Japan: A Cross-Cultural Study

Curr Psychol. 2023 Jul;42(21):17682-17699. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-02756-1. Epub 2022 Mar 12.

Authors

Lening A Olivera-Figueroa^{1

2

3}, Anna Muro⁴, Albert Feliu-Soler^{4

5}, Yuta Chishima⁶, Konrad S Jankowski⁷, Michael Todd Allen⁸, Richard J Servatius^{2

3}, Alexander Unger⁹, Julie Papastamatelou¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Yale University School of Medicine-Department of Psychiatry, 300 George Street # 901, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA.
² Rutgers New Jersey Medical School-Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, 185 South Orange Avenue, Newark, NJ, 07103, USA.
³ Syracuse Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Stress and Motivated Behavior Institute (SMBI), 800 Irving Avenue, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA.
⁴ Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona-Department of Basic, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Barcelona, Spain.
⁵ Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu-Teaching, Research and Innovation Unit, Fundació Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain.
⁶ University of Tsukuba-Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences. Tsukuba, Japan.
⁷ University of Warsaw-Faculty of Psychology, Warsaw, Poland.
⁸ University of Northern Colorado-School of Psychological Sciences, College of Education and Behavioural Sciences, Greeley, CO, USA.
⁹ Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society, East-Asia Institute, Rheinpromenade 12, Ludwigshafen 67061, Germany.
¹⁰ Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society, Institute of International Management Studies (IIMS), Ernst-Böhe Str. 4, Ludwigshafen 67059, Germany.

PMID: 37680300
PMCID: PMC10482053 (available on 2024-07-01)
DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-02756-1

Abstract

We assessed the cross-cultural role of Time Perspective (TP) tendencies [Past Positive (PP), Past Negative (PN), Present Hedonistic (PH), Present Fatalistic (PF), and Future (F)], the Deviation from a Balanced Time Perspective (DBTP) profile, the Deviation from a Negative Time Perspective (DNTP) profile, and mindfulness on life satisfaction (LS). The sample consisted of psychology undergraduate students (N= 867, M_AGE= 20.19, SD= 3.417) in four countries: USA, Spain, Poland and Japan. We used a 17-item short version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) in all countries. For ensuring measurement invariance, we conducted pairwise CFAs for the ZTPI-17, MAAS and SWLS. Regression analyses showed that PN predicted decreased LS in Poland and Japan. PP predicted increased LS in Spain. F predicted increased LS in Poland. DNTP predicted decreased LS in Poland. Mindfulness predicted decreased LS in Japan and increased LS in USA, Spain and Poland. Moreover, mediation analyses revealed that the DBTP partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and LS in Spain and USA. The DNTP partially mediated the relationship between mindfulness and LS in Spain, Poland and Japan (opposite direction). The findings suggest that the association of TP, mindfulness and LS differs across the investigated countries as a function of culture.

Keywords: Cross-Cultural; Deviation from a Negative Time Perspective (DNTP) coefficient; Deviation from the Balanced Time Perspective (DBTP) coefficient; Japan; Life Satisfaction; Mindfulness; Poland; Spain; Time Perspective; United States of America (USA).

Abstract

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