| This research focused on the role of future orientation in adolescent development in reducing risk and protecting youth from engaging in maladaptive behavior. Results extend the available knowledge regarding for whom, and in which contexts, future orientation is a significant predictor of adolescent adjustment. In past research, affiliation with a deviant peer group has been identified as one of the strongest risk factors predicting maladaptive adolescent outcomes. Future orientation was predicted to mediate the well-established relationships between deviant peer association and adjustment outcomes. Future orientation, a developmental task predominant in adolescence, refers to one's thoughts and plans for the future (Malmberg & Norrgard, 1999; Nurmi, 1987). Goals, dreams, and aspirations are common indicators of future orientation. In the current study, an observer rating protocol was developed to provide a new measure of future orientation derived from a 5-minute videotaped peer interaction task. A balanced sample of 101 European-American youth and 99 African-American youth were drawn from a larger existing dataset of adolescents aged 15--17 at this wave of data collection.;After establishing acceptable reliability and validity for the newly developed measure of future orientation, correlations between behavior and future orientation were examined. Future orientation significantly predicted a decrease in substance use for adolescent youth, but was not related to any of the other measures of interest in this study. Due to lack of significant correlations between future orientation and deviant peer association, the hypothesized mediation model of future orientation was not statistically supported. However, results did support adolescent future orientation as a significant predictor of adjustment outcomes, above and beyond the hindering influences of deviant peer association, for most participants. Significant differences in the pattern of correlations between future orientation, deviant peer association and adjustment outcomes were found for different SES groups (high vs. low), ethnic groups (AA vs. EA), and sex.;Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed. Practical applications of adolescent future orientation as a new area of intervention are explored. |
