Investigation of the relationship between university students' perception of future time and the personality traits and intolerance to uncertainty levels

This study aims to examine the relationship between university students' future perceptions and their personality traits and intolerance to uncertainty levels. The model of the research is general survey model. The universe of the research includes students from; Afyon Kocatepe University, Akdeniz University, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Sakarya University, and other universities. An appropriate sampling method was used for the sampling of the study. The sample of the study consists of university students from the universe who consented to participate in the study (n = 538). The Future Perception Scale was used to determine students' future perceptions, the Five-Factor Personality Scale was used to determine students' personality traits, and the Uncertainty Intolerance Scale was used to determine students' intolerance levels of uncertainty. Pearson Correlation analysis, ANOVA, Tukey HSD test, t-test, and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data of the study. The data of the study were analyzed through the SPSS 24.0 package program. According to the results of the study, the university students' perceptions of the future, five-factor personality traits, and intolerance to uncertainty score distributions are at a moderate level. The future perception levels of university students do not differ significantly according to the sociodemographic variables of gender, class, and parental association status, however, it differs statistically according to the variables of age, academic achievement, department, faculty, university, and perceived socioeconomic status. On the other hand, as a result of the analysis of the relationships between university students' perceptions of the future and their personality traits and intolerance to uncertainty levels, it was observed that there were negatively oriented significant correlation between commitment which is a sub-dimension of future perception and openness to experience, which is one of the personality traits. According to another result of the study, it was observed that there was a high level of significant correlation between university students' scores of "not knowing the future is disturbing", one of the sub-dimensions of intolerance to uncertainty, and commitment, and a moderately positive and significant correlation with value and speed. It was observed that the model of university students' levels of intolerance to uncertainty and students' personality traits predicting their future perceptions was significant, and the independent variables were predictor on a significant level on the dependent variables at a rate of 34%.