Influence of School and Family Contexts in Adolescents’ Life Purposes

Abstract

Considering that adolescents spend most of their time with their families and within the school environment, this study aimed to understand possible associations and influences of these contexts in adolescents’ life purpose. The sample consisted of 320 adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years old, of both genders, enrolled in the 9th grade of Elementary School II and High School of public and private schools and full-time public schools of a city of the countryside of São Paulo. Data were collected using the Sociodemographic Data Sheet and the Purpose in Life Questionnaire for Adolescents and analyzed using Student’s t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The results show that the life purpose of younger teens are more oriented towards Affective Relationships, Religion/Spirituality, and Material Goods than that of older ones. Projects related to Religion/Spirituality tend to decrease with increasing age and parental education level. Regarding the type of school, the life purpose of adolescents from public schools is more associated with Affective Relations and Religion/Spirituality than that of adolescents from private schools.

Keywords:
Purpose in Life; Adolescence; School; Family