The Mediational Role of Future and Past Time Perspectives in the Relationship Between Negative Affectivity and Sense of Coherence

Abstract

Sense of coherence (SoC) can promote positive coping, and one of its most prominent negative correlates is negative affectivity (NA). In the current study, we hypothesized that future and past time perspectives (TPs) will mediate the relationship between sense of coherence and negative affectivity, and the inverse relationship. The study was questionnaire-based, performed online. N = 719 participants aged 25–45 from the general Polish population took part. On the correlation level, NA was negatively related to future and past positive TPs, and positively to past negative TP. Future and past positive TPs were positively related to SoC, whereas the past negative TP was related negatively to SoC. Future and past TPs partially mediated the effect of NA on SoC. The indirect effect was the strongest for past negative TP and very weak for future and past positive TPs. The full model accounted for 52.9% of variance in SoC. Only past negative TP mediated the relationship between SoC and NA. The full model accounted for 29.8% of variance in NA. The results may serve as an inspiration to integrate time perspective aspects within the salutogenic approaches to understanding human behavior and psychological interventions.