The Research On The Association Between Future Time Perspective And Academic Engagement Through The Lens Of Sclf-Determination Theory

The future time perspective (FTP) refers to an individual’s conceptualization of the futureand the connectedness to the future. The FTP which is a cognitive structure about the futuretime has a unique motivation function and can affect students’ academic performance. Theaim of the present research was to examine the association among FTP, motivations andacademic engagement through the lens of self-determination theory. This paper includes threestudies.The aim of the first study was to examine the association among FTP, motivations andacademic engagement with questionnaire method.678sophomores (n=174for males, n=504for females) from a normal university participated in the study. It was found that (1) Noassociation between FTP and external regulation was found,(2) The mediating role ofintrojected regulation in the association between FTP and academic engagement throughexaming regression coefficients in turn was4.5%, the identified regulation10.1%, theintrinsic motivation14.5%, the Relative Autonomy Index(RAI)8.8%,(3) The mediating roleof introjected regulation in the association between FTP and academic engagement throughstructural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was not found, but identified regulation andintrinsic motivation played a mediating role in the association between FTP and academicengagement with path coefficient increasing by degrees. We can draw the conclusion that:(1)FTP not only can directly affect the academic engagement,(2) but also can indirectly affectthe academic engagement by promoting the internalization of motivations.The aim of the second study was to examine the differences of basic psychology needbetween the sophomores with low level of FTP and high level of intrinsic motivation and thesophomores with high level of FTP and high level of intrinsic motivation with questionnairemethod.168participators (n=37for males, n=131for females) from the first studyparticipated in this study. It was found that:(1) The need for autonomy of the sophomoreswith high level of FTP and high level of intrinsic motivation was significantly higher than thesophomores with low level of FTP and high level of intrinsic motivation, but there was nosignificantly differences found about the need for competence and the need for relatedness,(2)the need for autonomy of the participators was highest, followed by the need for competenceand the need for relatedness. We can draw the conclusion that:(1) the need for competenceand the need for relatedness played a contributing role for the ophomores with low level ofFTP and high level of intrinsic motivation in sustaining a high level of intrinsic motivation，(2)For all participators, the need for autonomy and the need for competence act as proximal factors in maintaining intrinsic motivation, while the need for relatedness provides a distalsupport for intrinsic motivation.The aim of the third study was to examine whether FTP promotes the internalization ofmotivations with questionnaire method.85participators(n=27for males, n=58for females)from the first study participated in this study. It was found that the RAI of the sophomoreswith high level of FTP and low level of intrinsic motivation improved significantly, while theRAI of the sophomores with low level of FTP and low level of intrinsic motivation did not.We can draw the conclusion that FTP can promote the internalization of motivations.