Future time perspective and depression, anxiety, and stress in adulthood.

Background and objective: Research has shown that perceptions of future time as limited are associated with more depressive symptoms. However, there is limited research on which dimensions of future time perspective (FTP: opportunity, extension, constraint) are associated with depression, anxiety, and stress, and whether these findings vary across age.

Design and methods: Data came from a cross-sectional study in a nonclinical U.S. sample (N = 793, 48.0% male; 48.7% female; age: M = 50 years, range: 19-85 years), and local structural equation modeling was used to examine the moderating role of age as a continuous variable rather than artificial age groups.

Results: For all dimensions of FTP, the perception of the future as limited was moderately to strongly associated with higher depression, anxiety and stress levels. More importantly, the association between the perceived constraint dimension and depression, anxiety, and stress was twice as large at younger ages than at older ages.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that perceived constraint is primarily a strong risk factor for or indicator of negative wellbeing in young adulthood, whereas perceived limited opportunity and extension are potential risk factors or indicators across the entire adulthood.