Abstract
Consideration of future consequences (CFC) was originally proposed to be a stable personality trait that describes the degree to which individuals consider the immediate versus distant results of their actions. Recent studies debate whether CFC fluctuates over short periods of time and whether it is a domain-specific construct. The present study aims to explore the fluctuation of CFC scale scores over a weekly interval and explore how this variability is associated with three relevant outcomes. For this purpose, the general CFC scale was adapted to three domain-specific scales: health, academic, and work. A total of 737 adults (Mage = 36.58, SD = 14.73) participated and completed the questionnaires over eight waves of data collection separated by one week. The results indicate that CFC scale scores fluctuates at weekly intervals. Healthy eating, academic engagement, and innovation at work at the intra-individual level were associated with fluctuations in the corresponding domain-specific scales over and above the general CFC scale. The results suggest that CFC is, to some extent, variable within short periods of time. Furthermore, we found evidence in favour of the reliability and validity of all CFC scales in Spanish used in this study. These findings may be useful for public policies that depend on people's future orientation.
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Mandatory Data Accessibility
The datasets generated during and analysed during the current study are not publicly available because the article presented is part of a doctoral thesis of the first author of this article. The doctoral thesis will consist of three empirical studies; the present article is the first. However, the dataset is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. As articles referring to the doctoral thesis are accepted, the databases will be published in the repository of the University of the Republic of Uruguay.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the Academic Postgraduate Commission of Uruguay (Comisión de Posgrado Académico de Uruguay) for providing us with funding to carry out the study. This research is not preregistered.
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This work was supported by the Academic Postgraduate Commission (Comisión de Posgrado Académico) of the University of the Republic of Uruguay (Universidad de la República de Uruguay) through a PhD scholarship awarded to the first author of the article.
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Lucia Alvarez-Nuñez: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data Curation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing, Visualization. Alejandro Vásquez-Echeverría: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Formal analysis, Project administration, Resources. Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing. Mirko Antino: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Formal analysis, Writing—Review & Editing.
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Alvarez-Nuñez, L., Vásquez-Echeverría, A. & Antino, M. Consideration of future consequences: evidence of weekly fluctuations and domain-specificity in association with health, academic, and work outcomes. Curr Psychol 42, 28406–28416 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03910-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03910-5