Original Article
Thinking about the past, present and future in adolescents growing up in Children's Homes
Kinga Morsanyi,
Erzsebet Fogarasi,
Corresponding Author
Kinga Morsanyi
University of Cambridge, Department of Psychology, Centre for Neuroscience in Education, UK
Queen's University Belfast, School of Psychology, UK
Corresponding author. School of Psychology, David Keir Building, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK. Tel.: +44 (0)28 9097 4326; fax: +44 (0) 28 9097 4524.Search for more papers by this authorErzsebet Fogarasi
Gabor Sztehlo Children's Home, Budapest, Hungary
Search for more papers by this authorKinga Morsanyi,
Erzsebet Fogarasi,
Corresponding Author
Kinga Morsanyi
University of Cambridge, Department of Psychology, Centre for Neuroscience in Education, UK
Queen's University Belfast, School of Psychology, UK
Corresponding author. School of Psychology, David Keir Building, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland, UK. Tel.: +44 (0)28 9097 4326; fax: +44 (0) 28 9097 4524.Search for more papers by this authorErzsebet Fogarasi
Gabor Sztehlo Children's Home, Budapest, Hungary
Search for more papers by this authorABSTRACT
The present study tested the hypothesis that adolescents growing up in Children's Homes differ from adolescents growing up in a family environment in how they think about their past, present and future, in the way they make decisions about future events and rewards, and in their levels of empathy and perspective taking. The participants were 40 adolescents from Children's Homes in Budapest, Hungary, and 40 age- and gender-matched controls. Group differences were found in participants' past and present time perspectives, and girls from Children's Homes showed reduced consistency in their plans for the future. Additionally, gender differences emerged in empathy, perspective taking, and in participants' present and future time perspectives. We discuss the implications of our findings for interventions to improve the future prospects of adolescents in Children's Homes.
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