6533b862fe1ef96bd12c6130

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Home atmosphere and adolescent future orientation

subject

description

Adolescent future orientation was studied from the point of view of orienting expectations about the future, consisting of three aspects: cognitive (clarity of plans for the use of future time), affective (optimistic vs pessimistic attitudes toward the future), and motivational (realistic vs unrealistic wishes for the future). The study was part of the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Social Development, the original sample for which consisted of 8-year-old subjects. Follow-up studies were made using a semistructured interview covering several aspects of home atmosphere (child-rearing and external home conditions) and youthful life orientation at ages 14 and 20 with 115 subjects. Results obtained with LISREL confirmed the hypothesis that optimism toward the future at age 20 was related to positive memories of child-rearing, and to a degree the hypothesis that the clarity of plans was related to parental occupational status and working conditions. Memory of the parents’ time for the child explained all aspects of adolescent future orientation.