<p>Time attitude refers to an individual’s feelings, thoughts, and evaluations regarding the past, present, and future; time attitude influences interpretations, goal-setting, choices and actions in both academic and social contexts. Given the impact of culture on the formation of time attitudes, it is crucial to explore how these components manifest in the specific cultural and social conditions of Iran. To this end, a qualitative methodology including interviews with focus group and grounded theory was used to investigate how youth conceptualize time and their attitudes toward it. The study included 44 participants (23 male and 21 female) in the third to sixth semester in the Tehran University. Six focus groups were formed, three for each gender, to discuss perceptions of time. Their responses regarding their perception of time were categorized in five categories including o’clock, passing, limitation, valuableness and feeling of fear. The results of open and axial coding for past, present and future revealed that Iranian youth perceive time in seven distinct categories: positive future, ambiguous future, hedonistic present, negative present, positive past, negative past and past acceptance. In conclusion, time attitude depends on culture and cultural-social conditions influence time attitude of youth.</p>