Time perspective and hope among the current homeless and former homeless

In order to assess Zimbardo and Boyd's (1999) model of time perspective and Snyder, et al.'s (1991) model of hope, 109 current homeless and 111 former homeless participants were examined. The primary research objectives explored (a) whether hope and time perspective are distinct in the current homeless as compared to the former homeless and (b) whether these variables are related in the combined current and former homeless sample. There were no significant differences between the current homeless and former homeless on hope, present-hedonistic orientation, present total orientation and future orientation. However, analyses revealed a significantly higher (p < .05) present-fatalistic orientation in the former homeless than the current homeless. Likewise, results indicated significantly more (p < .01) psychiatric conditions in the former homeless than the current homeless. In the combined sample, as predicted, future-orientation was found to be a better predictor of hope than present-orientation. Future-orientation was also shown to display a stronger relationship to hope than present orientation. In addition, findings indicated significant differences between average hope and future-orientation (p < .01) and between high hope and future-orientation (p < .01). However, there were no significant differences found between low hope and future-orientation and between any of the levels of hope and present-orientation.