An investigation of the relationship between time preference and developmental stage in the lives of adult females

Abstract

<p>Research has been conducted documenting the occurrence of biological rhythms in all aspects of life. Researchers have shown that an individual's time preference for morningness or eveningness parallels some biological rhythms. Others have shown that biological rhythms are stable across the life span. Preliminary studies have been conducted on adult developmental stages. These studies have shown that adults, like children, travel through distinct stages. This study arose when many women reported being an evening type when they were young adults, but changed to being a morning type when they had children. This study was designed to investigate whether a woman's time preference is dependent upon adult developmental stage and therefore a means to adapt to their changing responsibilities. This study recruited 200 women, between the ages of 40 to 60 years. All subjects bore primary child rearing responsibilities for at least one child. Subjects completed A Self-Assessment Questionnaire To Determine Morningness-Eveningness In Human Circadian Rhythms for three periods in their lives; when they had finished school but did not have children, when they had pre-school children, and the present. For each time period, subjects completed the questionnaire to document their time preference. It was hypothesized that an individual's time preference is not an inherent biological rhythm, but rather is an aspect of their developmental stage. It was specifically hypothesized that subjects would be most morning while raising pre-school children. This hypothesis was not fully supported. Questionnaire scores for the morning type sub-sample were linear at all time points. This indicates that for this sub-sample, adult developmental stage did not influence time preference. For all other subjects there was a significant increase in scores (more morningness) from the prechildren to children questionnaire. This data partially supports the original hypothesis, indicating that adult development does influence time preference. The second hypothesis stated that evening types would show greater variance in questionnaire scores than the morning types. This hypothesis was supported. Nurses and other health professionals can use this information to further explore the relationship between time preference and the effectiveness of time adjusted therapeutic regimens.</p>