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Future Orientation, School Contexts, and Problem Behaviors: A Multilevel Study

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Abstract

The association between future orientation and problem behaviors has received extensive empirical attention; however, previous work has not considered school contextual influences on this link. Using a sample of N = 9,163 9th to 12th graders (51.0 % females) from N = 85 high schools of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the present study examined the independent and interactive effects of adolescent future orientation and school contexts (school size, school location, school SES, school future orientation climate) on problem behaviors. Results provided evidence that adolescent future orientation was associated independently and negatively with problem behaviors. In addition, adolescents from large-size schools reported higher levels of problem behaviors than their age mates from small-size schools, controlling for individual-level covariates. Furthermore, an interaction effect between adolescent future orientation and school future orientation climate was found, suggesting influences of school future orientation climate on the link between adolescent future orientation and problem behaviors as well as variations in effects of school future orientation climate across different levels of adolescent future orientation. Specifically, the negative association between adolescent future orientation and problem behaviors was stronger at schools with a more positive climate of future orientation, whereas school future orientation climate had a significant and unexpectedly positive relationship with problem behaviors for adolescents with low levels of future orientation. Findings implicate the importance of comparing how the future orientation-problem behaviors link varies across different ecological contexts and the need to understand influences of school climate on problem behaviors in light of differences in psychological processes among adolescents.

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Notes

  1. As individual-level SES was not significantly correlated with measures of problem behaviors in the current study, it was not included as a control variable in subsequent analyses.

  2. We repeated our final model controlling for adolescent problem behaviors at Wave I and found a similar pattern of interaction between adolescent future orientation and school future orientation climate (b = −.019, p < .05). Specifically, controlling for Wave I problem behaviors, adolescent future orientation was significantly and negatively associated with Wave II problem behaviors at the high level (b = −.035, p < .05), but not at the mean (b = −.016, p = .108) and low (b = .002, p = .862) levels, of school future orientation climate, and school future orientation climate was significantly and positively associated with Wave II problem behaviors at the low (b = .053, p < .01) and mean (b = .034, p < .05) levels, but not at the high level (b = .016, p = .329), of adolescent future orientation. These findings suggest the need for future research to examine effects by adolescent future orientation and school future orientation climate on developmental changes of adolescent problem behaviors using growth curve modeling techniques.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

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  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, CNPRU, University of Chicago, 5841 S. Maryland Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Pan Chen

  2. Department of Family Sciences, University of Kentucky, 316 Funkhouser Building, Lexington, KY, 40509, USA

    Alexander T. Vazsonyi

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Chen, P., Vazsonyi, A.T. Future Orientation, School Contexts, and Problem Behaviors: A Multilevel Study. J Youth Adolescence 42, 67–81 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-012-9785-4

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