Time perspective of adolescents with deviant behavior: peculiarities and relation to tolerance for ambiguity and self-esteem

The aim of the authors was to study the influence of self-esteem and such construct as tolerance for ambiguity on time perspective of adolescents with deviant behavior, and also to identify the differences in the structure of time perspective and tolerance for ambiguity between adolescents with deviant behavior and adolescents with normative behavior. Several sample groups of “deviant” adolescents participated in the research: pupils of two special schools for adolescents with deviant behavior and pupils of a general education school whose behavior was characterized as deviant for several criteria. The comparative sample group consisted of pupils of general education schools and pupils of schools with a selection of children of good academic abilities and a high learning motivation. As a result the authors described different constructs of “deviant” and “normative” time perspective, identified different structures of tolerance for ambiguity and different strategies of adaption to negative events among “deviant” and “adaptive” adolescents.