The role of future work goal motives in adolescent identity development: A longitudinal mixed-methods investigation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2012.01.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Theories of adolescent identity development often emphasize the importance of adolescents’ future work goals, yet these theories rarely distinguish the self-oriented motives (enjoying or being a good fit for one’s work) from the beyond-the-self-oriented motives (having a positive impact on the world beyond the self) that underlie them. The present article explored the impact and development of both types of motives. Using longitudinal, mixed-methods data from middle school and high school students (N = 99), the present article found that: (1) adolescents generated both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives for their future work goals, often simultaneously; (2) adolescents who held both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives for their work goals were more likely to experience higher levels of purpose and meaning over a 2-year period than those who held neither; (3) school assignments that asked students to reflect on their work goals were positively related only to the development of self-oriented motives for work goals among middle school students; and (4) support from friends was positively related only to the development of self-oriented motives for work goals among high school students.

Highlights

► Adolescents’ identity development is frequently thought of as self-oriented. ► But combining self-oriented aims with aims beyond the self may promote positive development. ► Students with combined aims showed greater well-being over a 2 year period. ► School factors could predict whether students developed these aims. ► But these school factors were different for middle school versus high school adolescents.

Introduction

Adolescent identity formation has largely been conceptualized as adolescents’ answer to the questions “Who am I?” and “What kind of person do I want to be?” (see, e.g., LaGuardia, 2009). Within this broad question, identity researchers emphasize that one central aspect of identity development is vocational identity, or young people’s answers to the question “What do I want to be when I grow up?” (e.g., Eccles, 2009, Skorikov and Vondracek, 1998). Although these questions are essential to understanding adolescent identity development, we emphasize a broader conceptualization of adolescent identity development that includes adolescents’ answers to another fundamental question: “Why am I?” That is, we believe that not only are adolescents compelled to discover what kind of person they are and what kind of work they would like to do, but they are also interested in understanding why they are here and what their place is in the world (Yeager & Bundick, 2009). We argue that both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives for life goals are important components of how adolescents construct their identities and of how these identities promote optimal development.

Indeed, past theories have suggested that adolescents’ identity development is driven, in part, by a need to “matter” to others in life, in addition to more self-focused motives (Damon, 2008, Damon et al., 2003, Eccles, 2009, Frankl, 1959, Marshall, 2001, Rosenberg and McCullough, 1981, Schieman and Taylor, 2001). Although Erikson’s (1968) landmark theory of identity development has been primarily operationalized in terms of one’s self-oriented interests, values, skills and desires, it also emphasized the importance of beyond-the-self considerations. According to Erikson (1968) one’s identity integrates childhood identifications, pulling together the things one has found out about oneself through observation of one’s behaviors and characteristics –– that is, the “Me” described by James (1890). Yet identity also incorporates the future hopes, wishes, and dreams for the kind of person one wants to be (c.f. Higgins, 1987, Markus and Nurius, 1986) and the future contributions one wants to make to the world beyond the self (Damon, 2008; c.f. McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992). In this regard, a developing identity is for some students the coming together of the “who I am” with the “what role I want to play in the world” (see also McAdams, 1993). Such a synthesis can serve as a precursor to the development of a satisfying life purpose (Damon, 2008). Surprisingly, few empirical studies have explicitly investigated the development of both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented components of adolescent identity. Still fewer studies have examined how schools can impact in the development of these different components.

In this context, we conducted a 2-year longitudinal, mixed-methods investigation of adolescents’ identity development as it relates to the development of self-oriented and beyond-the-self motives for their future work goals in school. In doing this research, we first asked whether different motives for work goals will have differential relations with eudaimonic well-being, which refers to the meaning and purpose people derive from living their lives in accordance with their “true” selves (Waterman, 1993; see also Deci & Ryan, 2000). In the second half of this paper, we asked which school-related factors might promote the development of motives for work goals over a 2-year period.

In this research we do not focus on whether students have committed to a specific work role, like a doctor or an engineer. We do not think professions are objectively self-oriented or beyond-the-self-oriented. Rather, we think they are subjectively construed by students as oriented toward oneself or others, and it is these construals that determine the effects of work goals on developmental outcomes. Therefore we seek to understand whether and in what way adolescents have thought about the reasons why they aspire to future work roles—that is, their motives for their goals (for a related discussion of goal content, see Vansteenkiste, Simons, Lens, Sheldon, & Deci, 2004).

Recent research on identity development has emphasized that the roles available in the 21st century job market are uncertain and that this has shaped the identity formation process for adolescents and emerging adults. It is difficult for adults—let alone adolescents—to predict what kinds of jobs will be available in the future and what kinds of skills will be required for those jobs (Arnett, 2000, Flum and Kaplan, 2006). Under these circumstances, it may be unrealistic and even maladaptive for adolescents to commit to a career at a young age, both because a desired job may either be unavailable or require different skills when they eventually enter the market. Moreover, it may be developmentally inappropriate to commit to or foreclose on a vocational identity in the absence of a considered exploration of possible future selves. However, when adolescents engage in identity exploration they may better equip themselves to develop motives for the vocational goals that match their own skills, talents, interests and desired contributions. As a result, they may be more prepared to adapt to the changing job market, while also finding their daily activities more meaningful (Flum & Kaplan, 2006). Because one’s current identity can serve to organize one’s present commitments and activities, then adolescents’ motives underlying their goals for future work may predict current well-being and motivation, independent of whether they actually achieve their ultimate career goal later in life.

What types of goal motives might signal identity development and predict positive outcomes during adolescence? In past research, Yeager and Bundick (2009) used theory and data to classify adolescents’ motives for their work goals. As expected, this research first found that many adolescents stated that extrinsic motives, such as making money, gaining fame, or having high status, were important to them. However, such extrinsic motives are for many students psychologically quite distant from their current activities in school (Oyserman, Bybee, & Terry, 2006). When considering only extrinsic motives, school may be seen as relevant to students merely to the extent that they would eventually need to exchange their educational credentials for a job at some undetermined time in the future. This process may seem opaque and uncertain to them and may not be motivating. Moreover, extrinsic motives do not necessarily require that students master or find meaning in their current schoolwork—only that they do well enough to move on to college and a career (Labaree, 1997). Consistent with this idea, Yeager and Bundick (2009) found that extrinsic motives for work goals were unrelated to greater concurrent well-being and to the meaningfulness of current schoolwork in a sample of high school adolescents—even when students hoped to earn money to serve a prosocial cause such as giving to charity (for related research on college students, see Kasser and Ryan, 1993, Sheldon and Kasser, 1998, Vansteenkiste et al., 2006). For this reason, in the present research we do not think of extrinsic motives as evidence of the type of identity development that will predict greater well-being.

Yeager and Bundick (2009) also found that many adolescents expressed motives for work goals that were intrinsic to the work to be done, and these varied in terms of their self- or beyond-the-self orientation. Some of these motives were self-oriented, such as the idea that a job is a match for one’s skills, interests, and desires. Other intrinsic motives were beyond-the-self oriented, such as the idea that a job would allow one to make a positive contribution to something larger than oneself. When adolescents express intrinsic motives for their goals, they may see their current activities as a preparation for work they want to do, and hence construe these activities as more meaningful. Accordingly, Yeager and Bundick (2009) found that beyond-the-self-oriented intrinsic motives (but not self-oriented intrinsic motives) predicted greater meaningfulness in life and in schoolwork, a finding that resonates with past research on adults (Kasser and Ryan, 1993, Sheldon and Kasser, 1998, Vansteenkiste et al., 2006). However, Yeager and Bundick’s (2009) conceptualization was limited in that it did not test whether, when combined, self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives would predict greater well-being. Indeed, a great deal of theory suggests that it is normative for prosocial motivations to also be seen as beneficial to the self (Batson, 1987)—as when students say they would personally enjoy making a contribution. Intuitively, then, if an adolescent expects to both enjoy the challenge of a job and have a positive impact on the world by doing it, then his or her daily strivings toward those ends may seem especially worthwhile.

Past research on the development of an identity would suggest that the consequences and predictors of motives for work goals might differ for younger adolescents in middle school as compared to those in high school. Erikson’s (1968) theory suggested that initially, the content of one’s identity might include childhood identifications, perhaps gleaned from admired adults. Later in adolescence, however, one’s identity development may draw on more experience having watched one’s own behaviors—that is, there is more “data” on one’s true interests, skills and desires. In this way, younger and older adolescents may both endorse the same intrinsic motive for a work goal, but the process that led them to hold that goal may have been qualitatively different.

Whether these different processes lead to different consequences is, however, as yet unknown. The educational context may play an important role in promoting exploration of the types of motives adolescents’ have for their future goals (Flum & Kaplan, 2006). Indeed, to the extent that the formation of middle school students’ goals is likely to result from less time and opportunity for identity explorations—as well as a different school environment relative to high school students—they may be less stable over a 2-year period, less predictive of longitudinal outcomes, and better predicted by different school contextual factors, compared to high school adolescents’ goals. Alternatively, it may be the case that adolescents who start thinking earlier about their intrinsic motives, even if their formulations are only nascent, have more identity-related “raw material” to develop their vocational identity over time. Therefore, we asked: will motives for work goals be less or more predictive of well-being for middle school versus high school adolescents?

Building on past theories and findings, we conducted the present 2-year longitudinal mixed-methods investigation. First, we sought to extend the work of Yeager and Bundick (2009), which found a concurrent positive relationship between intrinsic motives for work goals and well-being. We did this by testing for similar relationships over a 2-year period, this time also testing for the potential impact of having both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented work goal motives. Second, we turned to the question of how schools can help to promote these motives for work goals. Specifically, we focused on two factors: support from friends and support from school assignments. We investigated the development of these motives for work goals using both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Notably, this study was unique in testing for developmental differences between middle school students and high school students when addressing each of these questions.

Section snippets

Participants

To select the participants, about 700 6th, 9th and 12th grade students were randomly selected from the class rosters of two high schools and two middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. One middle school and one high school were selected because they served mostly low-to-middle income families, and the other two schools were selected because they served middle and high-income families. Students were invited to complete an online survey during school hours in return for a chance to win a

Attrition analyses

We compared those who stayed in the study to those who dropped out in terms of 197 variables measured on the Time 1 survey by conducting t-tests and χ2 tests. Of these comparisons, only three (1.5%) were significant, which is fewer than would be expected by chance alone (at p < .05).

Discussion

In the popular media, adolescents are often characterized as primarily self-focused. In contrast to that intuition, when students in the present study were asked to talk about what was most important to them in life, over 36% mentioned doing work that could contribute in some way to the world beyond themselves. Importantly, most of these students also said that these work roles would be enjoyable or a match for their talents. Thus, many students simultaneously thought about their own enjoyment

Conclusion

Past researchers (e.g., Flum and Kaplan, 2006, Kaplan and Flum, 2009) have suggested that schools can and should promote exploration of one’s identity. This is an important aim, and one that is supported, albeit in a qualified fashion, in the present research. However, the evidence presented here suggests that focusing attention only on an adolescent’s skills, desires, and interests may be too narrow in scope. These data show that when adolescents’ identity development integrates a focus on

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank William Damon, Matthew Andrews, and members of the Stanford University Center on Adolescence for their contributions, and the Sir John Templeton Foundation and the Thrive Foundation for Youth for funding the collection of data.

References (46)

  • C.D. Batson

    Prosocial motivation: Is it every truly altruistic?

  • S.K. Marshall

    Do I matter? Construct validation of adolescents’ perceived mattering to parents and friends

    Journal of Adolescence

    (2001)
  • J.J. Arnett

    Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties

    American Psychologist

    (2000)
  • P.L. Benson et al.

    The definition and preliminary measurement of thriving in adolescence

    Journal of Positive Psychology

    (2009)
  • M.J. Bundick

    The benefits of reflecting on and discussing purpose in life in emerging adulthood

    New Directions in Youth Development

    (2011)
  • W. Damon

    The path to purpose: Helping our children find their calling in life

    (2008)
  • W. Damon et al.

    The development of purpose during adolescence

    Applied Developmental Science

    (2003)
  • E.L. Deci et al.

    The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior

    Psychological Inquiry

    (2000)
  • J.S. Eccles

    Who am I and what am I going to do with my life? Personal and collective identities as motivators of action

    Educational Psychologist

    (2009)
  • A.J. Elliot et al.

    A 2 x 2 achievement goal framework

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (2001)
  • E.H. Erikson

    Identity: Youth and crisis

    (1968)
  • H. Flum et al.

    Exploratory orientation as an educational goal

    Educational Psychologist

    (2006)
  • V.E. Frankl

    Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy

    (1959)
  • E.T. Higgins

    Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect

    Psychological Review

    (1987)
  • C.S. Hulleman et al.

    Promoting interest and performance in high school science classes

    Science

    (2009)
  • W. James
    (1890)
  • Jöreskog, K. G., & Sörbom, D. (2006). LISREL 8 user’s reference guide. Uppsala, Sweden: Scientific Software...
  • A. Kaplan et al.

    Motivation and identity: The relations of action and development in educational contexts

    Educational Psychologist

    (2009)
  • T. Kasser et al.

    A dark side of the American dream: Correlates of financial success as a central life aspiration

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    (1993)
  • M.H. Kutner et al.

    Applied linear statistical models

    (2005)
  • D.F. Labaree

    How to succeed in school without really learning: The credentials race in American education

    (1997)
  • J.G. LaGuardia

    Developing who I am: A self-determination theory approach to the establishment of healthy identities

    Educational Psychologist

    (2009)
  • S. Lyubomirsky

    The how of happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want

    (2007)
  • Cited by (40)

    • High construal level enhances perceived self-control capacity in intrinsic but not extrinsic goals

      2022, Personality and Individual Differences
      Citation Excerpt :

      Moreover, high construal level was also found to counteract the deleterious effects of self-regulatory energy depletion on subsequent tasks (Agrawal & Wan, 2009; Schmeichel & Vohs, 2009). In the sphere of personal goal pursuit, high-level construal (vs. low construal level) of goals leads individuals to initiate more goal-related behaviors and to refrain from goal-hindering behaviors, such as increasing exercise, reducing snack intake and smoking, and putting more time and effort into academic goals (Carrera et al., 2018; Chiou et al., 2013; Davis et al., 2016; Price et al., 2016; Sweeney & Freitas, 2014; Yeager et al., 2012). Previous studies have also identified several moderators of the relationship between construal level and self-control.

    • The development of grit and growth mindset during adolescence

      2020, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Unfortunately, much less is known about how to develop grit. Specifically, whereas a handful of interventions have successfully increased effort and academic achievement in convenience samples of adolescents (Eskreis-Winkler et al., 2016; Yeager, Bundick, & Johnson, 2012), almost nothing is known about how to increase long-term commitment to goals. One recent study indicated that individuals have different beliefs about the origins of passion (O’Keefe, Dweck, & Walton, 2018); compared with individuals with a fixed theory of interest, those with a growth theory of interest were more likely to maintain interest in the face of difficulty.

    • Recovery capital pathways: Modelling the components of recovery wellbeing

      2017, Drug and Alcohol Dependence
      Citation Excerpt :

      Prior research has shown that retention in recovery residences contributes to continued abstinence (French et al., 1993), albeit with gender differences (Brady and Ashley, 2005; Marsh et al., 2004), and also creates the conditions to gain useful employment skills (Gómez et al., 2014), which in turn is a favourable factor in continued remission (Platt, 1995). In other words, retention in recovery residences provides residents with opportunities to redevelop purpose and identity that benefits their selves and (re)connects them to the world beyond the self (see Burrow and Hill, 2011; Damon et al., 2003; Yeager and Bundick, 2009; Yeager et al., 2012). Building on Lewin (1943) field-theory analysis, the present study argues that recovery is initiated by first targeting people's meaningful activities (identified in the REC-CAP as employment, education and volunteering) yet we also appreciate that multiple, interrelated forces influence the individual within a force field at any moment.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text