Interaction of Future Time Orientation & Spinal Cord Injury

Effects of an Acquired Disability on an Individual's Orientation to the Future: 'Do Reactions of Adaptation to Disability Influence the Fluctuation of Future Time Orientation Among Individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries?'

Future time orientation (FTO), the degree of engagement in and concern about the future, is believed to have significant influence on a person's thoughts and behavior. In an article about her research findings, Erin Martz of the University of Missouri suggests that alteration in one's orientation to the future may result from experiencing a traumatic event. For this reason, she concludes that future time orientation is an important factor for rehabilitation counselors to consider when working with individuals with disabilities to develop vocational goals.

Martz hypothesizes that shock, anxiety, denial, depression, internalized anger, and externalized hostility related to experiencing a traumatic event will be negatively related to future time orientation and that acknowledgment and adjustment will be positively related to future time orientation. The research study involved a population of 317 veterans and civilians with spinal cord injuries. Participants completed a future time-orientation scale instrument, the reactions to impairment and disability inventory for measuring adaptation, as well as four questions from the American Injury Association Impairment Scale which measured severity of disability. Results showed that after controlling for specific demographic and disability-related variables, the eight reactions of adaptation to disability (shock, anxiety, denial, depression, internalized anger, externalized hostility, acknowledgment, and adjustment) explained 24 percent of the variance in FTO. Out of the eight reactions of adaptation to disability, shock, depression, and acknowledgment were found to significantly predict variance in FTO among individuals with SCI.

Believing that facilitation of greater FTO in disabled individuals may be integral to achievement of long-term, career-focused planning that is emphasized in rehabilitation counseling, Martz suggests that rehabilitation counselors should:

• Identify when individuals seem uninterested in planning for the
• future and recognize that this may be based on a truncated sense of future.
• Encourage a future orientation outlook by addressing individual's
• reactions to the existence of a disability.
• Refer individuals to therapy if shock and depression are identified,
• in order to prevent the effects on FTO.
• Encourage individuals to consider how their disability may affect their goals and future plans.

For in-depth information on this study, see Martz, E. (2004). Do Reactions of Adaptation to Disability Influence the Fluctuation of Future Time Orientation Among Individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries? Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 47(2), 8695.

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