Personal goals and well-being: How do young people navigate their lives?

Abstract

This chapter examines development through different life transitions, such as educational transitions and transition to parenthood during adolescence to adulthood in the context of the life-span model of personal goals. According to the life-span model of motivation, four key mechanisms-channeling, choice, co-regulation, and compensation-play a key role in how young people navigate their life. The aim is to describe how the conceptualized key factors are helpful in understanding the changes from adolescence to emerging adulthood and later in the life course and related well-being.

Goal pursuit in young adulthood: The role of personality and motivation in goal appraisal trajectories across 6years

“…As young adults have to cope simultaneously with many different developmental tasks (Caspi, 2002), we did not restrict our analysis to a particular goal domain but examined the whole range of young people's personal goals. This perspective is in line with developmental regulation theories, according to which adaptation means not only attaining a particular goal but includes being capable to adjust and reconstruct one's goals, and to set new goals once initial goals are attained (Freund & Baltes, 2002;Heckhausen et al, 2010;Nurmi, 2004;Salmela-Aro, 2010). To our knowledge this study is the first to examine the effects of personality and motivation on goal appraisals over a time span of several years.…”

“…For example, developmental psychologists have stressed that people who pursue goals related to the developmental tasks of their age will be more likely to attain their goals and will experience high levels of wellbeing (Heckhausen et al, 2010;Nurmi, 2004;Salmela-Aro, 2010; see Dietrich, Parker, & Salmela-Aro, 2012, for a review). This study aims to contribute to the understanding of how age-graded goal pursuits evolve across time.…”

“…Two contrasting hypotheses were formulated for the developmental trajectories of goal investment and momentum. On the one hand, because people set their goals in accordance with developmental tasks (Heckhausen et al, 2010;Nurmi, 2004;Salmela-Aro, 2010) and individuals face many developmental tasks during this age period (Caspi, 2002; see also Seiffge-Krenke, Kiuru, & Nurmi, 2010), it can be hypothesized that the overall investment in personal goals, as well as goal momentum remain high throughout young adulthood. On the other hand, it can be assumed that setbacks and disappointments that characterize the lives of young people (EGRIS, 2001;Messersmith & Schulenberg, 2010) might be associated with temporal or even stable decline in goal investment and momentum.…”

Family Formation Expectations and Early Pregnancy in Mexican Adolescents

“…Setting goals for life entails a negotiation between individual motivations, opportunities, challenges and restrictions (Salmela-Aro 2010); it reflects what an individual wants to achieve in life as well as his/her personal and social values, all of which orient his/her actions (Scharf and Mayseless 2010). According to this, early parenthood could be linked to an aspiration that becomes more significant when young people perceive strong limitations and lack of opportunities for personal development (Colín and Villagomez 2010;Kearney and Levine 2012).…”

Aspiraciones educativas y familiares como condicionantes en la prevención de embarazos tempranos en México

“…Hoy se reconoce que la maternidad y paternidad adolescente es un evento que se reproduce intergeneracionalmente 26,27 y que los adolescentes co-regulan sus metas de vida con las de otros actores significativos. 28 Cuando existe en la familia un menor énfasis en la necesidad de alcanzar un alto nivel de estudios, acompañado de menores recursos para invertir en capital humano, los hijos reproducen las trayectorias de vida de sus padres.…”