The role of time orientation in life satisfaction across the life span

Relating contentment to different points in life can provide the construct of life satisfaction with an essential time orientation. The Self-Anchoring Scale was used to rate life in the present, the past (five years before), and the future (five years ahead). Subjects were the respondents of five national surveys in Israel. The findings showed an age-related configuration where progressive age was associated with declining ratings for the future, a milder decline for the present, and a relative increase for the past. In addition to rating levels, a structural modeling approach was used to explore the relative salience of these time referents, considered as indicators of the construct of life satisfaction. LISREL estimates of the indicator loadings in two related models showed the present as most salient and the past as least salient in most age groups. The salience of the past increased in later life, when that of the future did as well. The time-related construct of life satisfaction (which fit the data in all age groups) highlights the yet undetermined role of the future in the subjective well-being of the elderly.