Acta Psychologica Sinica

Abstract

Orientation towards future events or outcomes is an important feature of individuals’ thoughts and behaviors. Future orientation, defined as how adolescents anticipate and construct their personal future, is a multidimensional and multistage phenomenon that can be described in terms of motivation, planning, and evaluation. Previous research indicates that adolescents’ orientation towards the future is particularly important for many aspects of their development. Planning for the future is an important aspect of future orientation and has been extensively studied by researchers according to two sub-processes: exploration and commitment. Studies have indicated that how adolescents anticipate and plan for their future is greatly influenced by the particular context in which they are placed, but most of the research in this area has been conducted with adolescents in western cultures. Information about how contemporary Chinese adolescents plan for their future is very limited. In addition, previous studies mainly examined the development of future orientation in early and middle adolescence. Few studies have focused on how young people in late adolescence plan for their future or on the changes that take place during the transition from middle to late adolescence. To the extent that family and peer groups are proximal contexts that are salient for and supportive of adolescents’ cognitive and social development, how parents and friends may affect adolescents’ future planning is also an important question of interest.

This study examined personal future planning of middle and late adolescents in contemporary China and its relation to adolescents’ communications with parents and friends. We administered a modified version of the Future Orientation Questionnaire and measures of communications with parents and friends to 1741 adolescents attending senior high schools and universities in Shandong Province, the People’s Republic of China.

The results were as follows: 1) Adolescents’ personal future planning varied across different life domains. Compared with future occupation and marriage, adolescents reported significantly more exploration and commitment concerning their future education. 2) Different developmental patterns were observed for adolescents’ exploration for and commitment to future education, occupation and marriage/family from middle to late adolescence. Overall, students in late adolescence reported more exploration in all the three domains than students in middle adolescence. Students in middle adolescence reported greater commitment to future education than students in late adolescence, while students in late adolescence reported greater commitment to marriage/family than students in middle adolescence. 3) Males reported less commitment to future education and more exploration and commitment concerning marriage/family than females. 4) Urban adolescents reported more exploration and commitment concerning future education than rural adolescents, while rural adolescents reported greater commitment to future marriage/family. 5) Adolescents’ communication with parents and friends played an important role in middle and late adolescents’ future planning, but the significance of communication with parents and friends for adolescent future planning varied across life domains. Communication with parents had a greater impact on adolescents’ planning for future education and occupation, while communication with friends had a greater impact on adolescents’ future planning concerning marriage/family.

These findings were discussed with reference to what has been reported on adolescents in western cultures and the cultural context of contemporary Chinese adolescents.

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