Abstract
While studies on youth’s purpose have flourished in the last two decades, the work was mostly cross-sectional and derived from Western settings. This research examined the developmental trajectories of purpose exploration and commitment of Taiwanese youth during middle adolescence, with a focus on how they associate with youth’s psychological functioning in terms of life satisfaction and depressive symptoms and whether social support moderates such development. A total of 369 vocational high school students in Taiwan (45% females; Mage = 15.82 years) participated in a four-wave study spanning two years with a one-semester interval. The results of piecewise growth curve modeling in the context of structural equation modeling suggested that purpose commitment increased over 10th grade, decreased initially in 11th grade, and then continued to increase. Purpose exploration similarly increased over 10th grade, but after the initial 11th grade dip remained stable. In addition to the higher initial levels, the steeper the rate of purpose exploration and commitment ascent and the slighter the rate of reduction predicted enhanced youth life satisfaction. The trajectory of purpose commitment also predicted reduced depressive symptoms, but such effects did not occur for purpose exploration. Moreover, multi-group analyses revealed that the more family, teacher, and peer support youth perceived, the more likely youth explored and committed to purpose over time.
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Authors’ Contributions
H.Y.C. was involved in hypothesis development, performed the data analyses, and drafted the manuscript; H.J.C. was involved in hypothesis development, data analysis, and manuscript revision; C.L.C. obtained funding for the project, designed and supervised the project, and was also involved in manuscript revision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (MOST 103-2410-H-003-048-SS3).
Data Sharing Declaration
The dataset analyzed for the current report is not publicly available but may be requested from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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The research was approved by Institutional Review Board at National Changhua University of Education.
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Parents provided consent for youth to participate prior to the administration of the surveys; youth provided informed assent at each wave of data collection.
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Appendix A Fit Indices of Longitudinal Measurement Invariance Analyses for the Measure of Purpose Exploration, Purpose Commitment, Life Satisfaction, and Depressive Symptoms
Appendix A Fit Indices of Longitudinal Measurement Invariance Analyses for the Measure of Purpose Exploration, Purpose Commitment, Life Satisfaction, and Depressive Symptoms
Purpose Exploration | Purpose Commitment | Life Satisfaction | Depressive Symptoms | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RMSEA | CFI | χ2 | RMSEA | CFI | χ2 | RMSEA | CFI | χ2 | RMSEA | CFI | χ2 | |
Configural | 0.05 | 0.96 | 269.86 | 0.06 | 0.94 | 742.07 | 0.07 | 0.98 | 171.18 | 0.06 | 0.93 | 383.96 |
Metric | 0.06 | 0.95 | 315.23 | 0.06 | 0.94 | 765.31 | 0.07 | 0.98 | 182.88 | 0.06 | 0.93 | 403.99 |
Scalar | 0.06 | 0.95 | 343.16 | 0.06 | 0.93 | 803.97 | 0.07 | 0.97 | 198.00 | 0.06 | 0.93 | 424.91 |
Note. RMSEA Root-Mean Square Error of Approximation, CFI Comparative Fit Index
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Chen, HY., Chiou, H. & Cheng, CL. Purpose Trajectories During Middle Adolescence: The Roles of Family, Teacher, and Peer Support. J Youth Adolescence 51, 291–304 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01548-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01548-3