Future Time Orientation Scale: a new measure to assess the psychological future

The existing literature includes distinct psychometric measures designed to assess the psychological future. Examples include the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory and the Future Time Perspective Scale. Nevertheless, these measures have been found to have certain statistical and theoretical limitations, or they predominantly concentrate on a singular aspect of the future. This article aims to address these limitations by introducing the Future Time Orientation Scale (FTOS), a novel instrument designed to assess the psychological future. The article comprises three studies involving five distinct samples that encompassed 3,316 participants from Brazil and Portugal. The FTOS consists of two factors, each containing five and three items, respectively. The factors assess impact (i.e., influence of the psychological future in current decisions and behavior) and distance (i.e., perceptions of time distance into the future). Across the three studies, validity and reliability evidence is established through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, measurement invariance models, ceiling and floor effect assessment, four types of reliability coefficients, and relations to other measures. Therefore, the FTOS is ready for further use, development, and testing in other research and practice contexts.