The Impact Of Life Purpose On The Positive Development Of Adolescent

Background: promoting the positive youth development is of great significance to youth themselves,others and society.Many theoretical models and empirical studies point out that the purpose in life is an important factor to promote the positive youht development.The study of purpose can be carried out from two angles: the purpose content and the sense of purpose.At present,the research on the relationship between purpose in life and positive youth development is mostly carried out from the perspective of sense of purpose.As for the purpose content and its relationship with the positive youth development,there are still the following problems to be solved:(1)Lack of measurement tools for purpose content of contemporary youth in China;(2)The relationship between each purpose content and positive youth development is not clear;(3)The mechanism of promoting the positive youth development by the purpose content is not clear(4)The type of purpose content possessed by youth and the relationship between different types and positive development are not clear.Purpose:(1)Compile a questionnaire on the purpose content suitable for contemporary youth in China;(2)explore the differences of the impact of different purpose content on positive youth development;(3)To test whether the sense of purpose plays an intermediary role between the purpose content and the positive youth development;(4)To explore what purpose content types youth have from the perspective of person-centered;(5)Analyze the differences of positive youth development under different purpose content types.Methods: in Study 1,2002 youth from the first grade of junior high school to sophomores were selected as subjects.Through open-ended questionnaire survey,item analysis,exploratory factor analysis and reliability and validity verification,the questionnaire of youth’s purpose content was compiled.In Study 2,690 youth from the first grade of junior high school to the third grade of high school were selected as subjects.From the variable-centered perspective,correlation analysis,regression analysis and mediation effect test were carried out;From the person-centered perspective,latent profile analysis and one-way ANOVA were carried out.Results:(1)the youth purpose content questionnaire includes six dimensions: family harmony,social influence,service dedication,self-improvement,material pleasure and peace and health;(2)The purpose content of beyond-the-self has a stronger predictive effect on the positive youth development than the purpose content of self-service;(3)The sense of purpose plays an mediating role between the purpose content and the positive youth development;(4)The types of purpose content possessed by youth are divided into non-purpose group,self-service group,beyond-the-self group and multi-purpose group;(5)the scores of multi-purpose group in the positive youth development were significantly higher than other groups,the scores of the non-purpose group were significantly lower than other groups,and the scores of the beyond-the-self group and self-service group were at the middle level.The results of this study show that the purpose content can not only directly promote the positive youth development,but also indirectly promote the positive youth development through sense of purpose.The research clarifies the relationship between youth’s purpose content,sense of purpose and positive development,and enlightens parents and educators to focus on the goal orientation of beyond-the-self when cultivating youth’s purpose.