Changes in Psychological Time Perspective During Residential Addiction Treatment: A Mixed-Methods Study

Time perspective (TP) refers to an individual's subjective relationship to the past, present, and future. Zimbardo's Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) is a scale designed to capture 5 distinct constructs of subjective temporality (Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). It is regarded as a valid predictor of health-related choices and mental health. This mixed methodological study investigates psychological perspectives of time in a group of 63 individuals seeking help for alcohol/drug dependence issues who then successfully completed a group residential addiction treatment intervention. Measures of TP using a short-form ZTPI and a qualitative component were taken at preintervention and postintervention along with scores of depression and anxiety. Findings demonstrated that past-negative, present-fatalism, and present-hedonistic TPs were significantly positively associated with depression and anxiety. Significant negative relationships were found between mental health concerns and both past-positive and future TPs. Distinct changes were revealed in temporality between premeasures and postmeasures of the addiction treatment intervention from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives highlighting significant adaptations in relationships to time. The potential use and implications of these findings for understanding addiction and considering psychotherapeutic treatment are discussed.