Adolescent Future-oriented Development

Adolescence can be conceived as a period of thinking about the future in preparation for transition to adulthood, and it's also a time for the intensive construction of new thoughts, values, commitment, and self-beliefs. How people see their personal future in terms of goal and concerns has been described in terms of future orientation, which is particularly important for adolescents. Earlier research and theories on adolescents'future orientation were first reviewed. Next, Future Orientation Questionnaire was revised in the context of China. And then the revised questionnaire was administrated to approximately 2000 urban and rural adolescents from junior middle school, senior middle school and university. On the base of the data, the characteristics of future orientation according to location, gender, period of schooling, were analyzed. The main findings are as follows: 1. Overall, adolescent future-oriented goals and concerns most often concerned the major developmental tasks of their own age, such as future education, occupation, family/marriage. And the temporal extension of these goals and hopes reflected the cultural prototype: adolescents expect to finish their schooling first, then to get a job, and third, to get married. 2. As adolescents grew older, they became increasingly interested in future occupation and family/marriage, and concerned future occupation, while the interests in future education decreased. During adolescence, hopes and concerns about relatives and self changed a little. 3. Girls from university mentioned more hopes about future education and family than boys from university, and girls also concerned more about relatives. Boys reported more hopes about future occupation, while no gender difference were found according to concerns about future education, occupation, and self. 4. Adolescents in urban concerned self more, while urban and rural adolescents'hopes and concerns were similar in other topics. 5. Identity exploration and commitment related to future education were higher than those related to future occupation and family, and exploration related to future occupation was higher than that related to future family, while the level of commitment related to family was higher than that related to future occupation. 6. The age-related increase in identity exploration and commitment was different according to the different areas. 7. No gender difference was found in the level of exploration and commitment related to future education and occupation. And overall, the level of boys'exploration and commitment related to future family was higher. 8. Adolescents living in urban areas showed higher level of exploration related to future education than those living in rural areas, junior and senior middle school students living in urban areas committed more in future education, while university students living in rural and urban were similar. Adolescents living in rural areas and towns committed more in future family than those living in urban areas. No location difference was found in exploration and commitment related to future occupation. 9. Overall, the internality, externality and optimism about future education and occupation were higher than those about future family, while the difference between future and occupation was according to gender, location, and period of schooling. 10. The internality and externality about future education and occupation of adolescents'from university and senior middle school were higher than those of junior middle school students, and all the students were optimism to future education over the adolescent period. Students from senior middle school were more optimism than those from junior middle school and university. The internality and externality about future family increased during adolescence, while adolescents from university and senior middle school were more optimism than those from junior middle school. 11. Besides adolescents of junior middle school living in urban areas and those of university living in towns, no gender difference was found in casual attributions and optimism about future education and occupation. And boys were more internality and optimism about future family. 12. Adolescents living in urban areas applied more externality about future family than those living in towns. And adolescents living in urban areas applied more internality about future education, occupation, and family, and more externality about...