A short-term longitudinal examination of the associations between self-control, delay of gratification and temporal considerations

Italian Validation of the Delaying Gratification Inventory in Adolescents

The delay of gratification (DoG) is defined as the willingness to forego immediate satisfaction to achieve greater long-term gratification. This ability is essential in adolescence, as its development is crucial against desirable versus undesirable behaviors. This study investigated the psychometric proprieties of the Delaying Gratification Inventory (DGI) in Italian adolescents. A total of 621 Italian adolescents, ranging from 14 to 17 years old (M = 15.92, SD = 1.05; 47.7% boys), participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis identified a four-factor structure (delay of gratification concerning Food, Social Interaction, Money, and Achievement). The reliability of the Italian DGI was acceptable. Measurement invariance across gender was supported. Boys reached a higher DoG score in the Food subscale and a lower score in the Social Interaction and Achievement subscales than girls. Moreover, the Italian DGI dimensions were all positively correlated with self-control and prosocial behavior. Except for the Social Interaction subscale, positive correlations were found between the Food, Money, and Achievement subscales and self-esteem. The present findings suggest that the Italian DGI could be used for assessing DoG ability, a key regulatory ability that promotes healthy behaviors in adolescence.

Relationship between behavioral inhibition/activation system and Internet addiction among Chinese college students: The mediating effects of intolerance of uncertainty and self-control and gender differences

Background

Internet addiction is a global public health issue among college students that is associated with a range of negative outcomes. Especially the COVID-19 pandemic has forced them to shift most of their studies and life activities from offline to online, leading to a growing problem of Internet dependence and even Internet addiction. Although previous studies have indicated that the Behavioral Inhibition/Activation System (BIS/BAS) have important effects on college students' Internet addiction, the mechanisms underlying these associations and gender differences are still unclear.

Aims

The present study investigated the mediating roles of intolerance of uncertainty and self-control in the association between BIS/BAS and Internet addiction following the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model. Gender differences in such associations between variables were also tested.

Method

A total of 747 Chinese college students were surveyed by using Young's Diagnostic Questionnaire for Internet Addiction, BIS/BAS Scales, the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale and the Brief Self-Control Scale.

Results

The results from the structural equation modeling analysis showed that BIS was positively related to Internet addiction and that BAS had a negative association with Internet addiction. Moreover, intolerance of uncertainty and self-control mediated the relationships between BIS/BAS and Internet addiction. Multi-group analysis further revealed that the associations between BAS and Internet addiction and between intolerance of uncertainty and Internet addiction were stronger among the male students than among female students. The relationship between self-control and Internet addiction was greater in the female sample than in the male sample.

Conclusions

These findings extend our understanding of how BIS/BAS influence Internet addiction among college students and suggest that not only should training approaches based on intolerance of uncertainty and self-control be fully considered, but different intervention programs should be focused on gender sensitivity to maximize the intervention effect.

Patience Is a Virtue: Theory of Mind Longitudinally Predicts Children's Delay during School Transition

Four- to seven-year-old children participated in a battery of tasks assessing their theory of mind, conflict inhibition, and delay at time 1, and theory of mind and delay one year later at time 2. Cross-lagged analysis revealed that earlier theory of mind predicted later delay after controlling for earlier conflict inhibition and theory of mind, child age, and family socioeconomic status. The findings highlighted the dynamic nature of the association between theory of mind and delay during the school transition years in its strength and direction, and the increasing specificity in the structure of executive function with age.

Delaying Gratification's role in the relationship between facets of mindfulness and substance use outcomes

The present study examined whether five facets of mindfulness (acting with awareness, describing, observing, non-judging of inner experience, and non-reactivity to inner experience) relate to alcohol and cannabis outcomes (quantity of use and negative consequences) via delaying gratification. Participants were college students across seven universities who used alcohol (n = 1467) and/or cannabis (n = 647) in the last 30 days. For the alcohol analytic sample, the majority of students identified as being female (71.1%) and reported a mean age of 20.04 (Median = 19.00; SD = 3.47) years. For the cannabis analytic sample, the majority of students identified as being female (69.7%) and reported a mean age of 19.63 (Median = 19.00; SD = 2.85). Within our model, significant indirect effects were only found for two mindfulness facets. Specifically, the indirect effects from acting with awareness (alcohol indirect β = -0.026, SE = 0.006; cannabis indirect β = -0.019, SE = 0.008) and observing (alcohol indirect β = -0.017, SE = 0.005; cannabis indirect β = -0.015, SE = 0.007) to consequences via delaying gratification and quantity were significant for both the alcohol and cannabis models, such that acting with awareness and observing were associated with higher delaying gratification; which in turn was associated with lower quantity of use, which in turn was associated with fewer consequences for both the cannabis and alcohol models. Our findings suggest that delaying gratification is important to understanding the relationship between specific mindfulness facets (i.e., acting with awareness and observing) and alcohol and cannabis outcomes. Mindfulness interventions aimed at reducing substance use may benefit from targeting delaying gratification through increasing acting with awareness and observing.

Self-control and organizational citizenship behavior: The role of vocational delay of gratification and job satisfaction

BACKGROUND

Self-control is an important factor in predicting employees' organizational citizenship behavior, but previous studies have not examined the internal mechanism by which self-control affects organizational citizenship behavior.

OBJECTIVE

The current study aimed to explore the relationship between self-control and employees' organizational citizenship behavior and to test the mediating effects of vocational delay of gratification and job satisfaction.

METHODS

Participants were 474 full-time employees (187 male, 287 female) from different companies in South China. They answered online self-report questionnaires that assessed self-control, vocational delay of gratification, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior. Path analyses were conducted and a bootstrap technique was used to judge the significance of the mediation.

RESULTS

The results showed that high self-control employees were more willing to engage in citizenship behavior that benefitted their organizations and colleagues, and the chain mediating effect of vocational delay of gratification and job satisfaction between self-control and organizational citizenship behavior was significant.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide insights to management regarding the mechanism to promote and maintain employees' pro-organizational behavior.

Letters to our Future Selves? High-Powered Replication Attempts Question Effects on Future Orientation, Delinquent Decisions, and Risky Investments

Enhancing people's future orientation, in particular continuity with their future selves, has been proposed as promising to mitigate self-control–related problem behavior. In two pre-registered, direct replication studies, we tested a subtle manipulation, that is, writing a letter to one's future self, in order to reduce delinquent decisions (van Gelder et al., 2013, Study 1) and risky investments (Monroe et al., 2017, Study 1). With samples of n = 314 and n = 463, which is 2.5 times the original studies' sample sizes, the results suggested that the expected effects are either non-existent or smaller than originally reported, and/or dependent on factors not examined. Vividness of the future self was successfully manipulated in Study 2, but manipulation checks overall indicated that the letter task is not reliable to alter future orientation. We discuss ideas to integrate self-affirmation approaches and to test less subtle manipulations in samples with substantial, myopia-related self-control deficits.

Inventário de Adiamento de Gratificação (DGI-35): Propriedades Psicométricas da Versão Brasileira

Resumo O Inventário de Adiamento de Gratificação (DGI-35) foi desenvolvido para avaliar os diferentes níveis de adiamento de gratificação presentes na população geral. O objetivo deste estudo foi apresentar as propriedades psicométricas do DGI-35 para a população brasileira e evidências de validade convergente com a Escala de Impulsividade de Barratt (BIS-11). Participaram 405 brasileiros (61,2% mulheres), com idades entre 18 e 46 anos (M = 22,32, DP = 4,78). Foram conduzidas análises fatoriais exploratórias e confirmatórias com vistas a avaliar a estrutura interna do instrumento. Dos cinco fatores originais, quatro tiveram estrutura interna semelhante à versão original, exceto o fator “Físico” que não se ajustou ao modelo, levando a criação de uma alternativa de 28 itens à escala original (DGI-28), que apresentou adequados índices de ajuste. Conforme esperado, o escore global da DGI-28, bem como os seus fatores estiveram negativamente relacionados ao escore global da BIS-11.

Motivational power of future time perspective: Meta-analyses in education, work, and health

Future time perspective (FTP) may predict individual attitudes and behaviors. However, FTP research includes different FTP conceptualizations and outcomes which hinder generalizing its findings. To solve the inconsistencies in FTP research and generalize the magnitude of FTP as a driver of motivation and behavior, we conducted the first systematical synthesis of FTP relationships in three crucial life domains. Our meta-analyses of FTP studies in education (k = 28), work (k = 17), and health (k = 32) involved N = 31,558 participants, and used a conceptual model for grouping FTP constructs. To address different outcome types, we applied the Theory of Planned Behavior when coding the studies. FTP relationships with outcomes were small-to-medium, were generalizable across domains, and were strongest when the FTP construct included a mixture of cognition, behavioral intention, and affect and, in education, when the FTP measure was domain specific rather than general. There were cross-cultural differences in FTP-outcome relationships. The strength of the FTP-outcome types relationship varied for attitudes, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intention, and behaviors. The lowest effect sizes were found for FTP predicting actual behaviors in education, work, and health and between FTP and health attitudes. Theoretical implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Does Promotion Orientation Help Explain Why Future-Orientated People Exercise and Eat Healthy?

A study with United States undergraduate students showed individuals high in concern with future consequences engage in exercise and healthy eating because they adopt a promotion orientation, which represents the extent to which individuals are inclined to pursue positive gains. The present article reports a cross-cultural replication of the mediation findings with undergraduate samples from Brazil and New Zealand. Promotion orientation mediated the association between concern with future consequences and exercise attitudes in both countries, but the associations for healthy eating were not replicated-which could be explained by distinct obesity prevalence and eating habits in these socio-cultural contexts. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings for promoting health behavior.