Appreciation of Time and Emotional Well-Being in Adulthood

TL;DR

This study explores how older adults' perception of limited time enhances their emotional well-being through prioritizing meaningful experiences and relationships.

Contribution

The study introduces and validates a new scale, the Appreciation of Remaining Time (ART), which captures a distinct psychological construct.

Findings

The ART scale showed discriminant validity from time perspective, savoring, and gratitude measures.

Greater appreciation of remaining time was linked to higher emotional well-being and preference for emotionally meaningful social interactions.

Age was positively associated with appreciation of remaining time, which in turn predicted better emotional outcomes.

Abstract

According to socioemotional selectivity theory, as individuals age and experience time as increasingly limited, appreciation for remaining time in life increases. Theoretically, this leads people to prioritize meaningful experiences and social relationships that contribute to emotional well-being. To examine this postulate, we developed the Appreciation of Remaining Time (ART) scale and established its convergent and discriminant validity. The present study examined the relationship of the ART scale with existing measures of savoring and measures of well-being. 406 participants aged 18–90 (Mage = 49.33, SD = 19.28) completed the ART scale, as well as measures of time perspective, savoring, and gratitude. Participants also completed assessments of emotional well-being and a social preference paradigm task. Analyses established discriminant validity for the ART scale from measures of time perspective, savoring, and gratitude. ART mediated associations between age and outcomes of interest. Specifically, age was associated with greater appreciation of remaining time, which in turn was associated with greater emotional well-being and stronger preferences for engaging with emotionally meaningful social partners. These findings replicate and extend prior research, suggesting that the ART scale taps a distinct construct that holds meaningful implications for socioemotional aging. Viewing time as both limited and valuable appears to contribute to greater emotional well-being at older ages.