Abstract
Hopeful expectations for the future have been shown to play an important role in the positive development of youth, including youth contributions to society. Although theory and some research suggest that familial socialization may influence future-oriented cognitions, little work has focused on the possible interrelation of parent–child relationships and the development of hope, particularly during adolescence. Accordingly, the first goal of this study was to identify developmental profiles of youth with respect to hopeful future expectations (HFE) and parental trust across adolescence. Next, we explored whether these developmental trajectories were related to youth Contribution, indexed by community leadership, service, and helping attitudes and behaviors. We used growth mixture modeling to simultaneously examine trajectories of adolescents’ perceived connections with parents (indexed by parent trust) and HFE among 1,432 participants (59 % female) from Waves 3 through 6 (Grades 7 through 10) of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. A four-profile model provided the best fit to the data, with the following profiles: Moderate HFE/U-shaped Trust; Moderate HFE/Increasing Trust; Both Decreasing; and Both High Stable profiles. We then explored whether hope-trust profiles were related to youth Contribution in Wave 7. Contrary to hypotheses, results indicated that the profile reflecting the greatest discrepancy in HFE and trust across early to middle adolescence (i.e., Moderate Hope/U-shaped Trust) was associated with the highest mean Contribution scores. The implications of the findings for future theory and research are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
According to Erikson, hope provides a framework for an individual’s movement through the stages of early childhood through old age, and its meaning for the individual’s social interactions is expanded or refined as new strengths emerge (Erikson 1968). Any of the virtues that arise from the resolution of a conflict at a particular stage inform the subsequent stages. Therefore, hope is not only foundational for healthy development in infancy, but it provides a lens through which the adolescent approaches new social relationships as part of the identity crisis.
In the 4-H Study, earlier Waves of data collection corresponded with the participants’ grade in school. For instance, in Wave 1 of the 4-H Study, youth were in Grade 5 and in Wave 2, they were mostly in Grade 6. However, in later Waves of data collection, participants were sampled from a wider range of grades. For example in Wave 6, the majority of participants were in Grade 10, but there were also participants in Grades 9 and 11. Therefore, in the present study we refer to “Wave” to indicate the times of testing, rather than “Grade.”
References
Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2012). Using Mplus TECH11 and TECH12 to test the number of latent classes. Mplus Web notes: no. 14. Retrieved from http://www.statmodel.com/examples/webnotes/webnote14.pdf.
Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2013). Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: A 3-step approach using MPlus. MPlus Web notes: no. 14. Retrieved from https://www.statmodel.com/examples/webnotes/AuxMixture_submitted_corrected_webnote.pdf.
Aspinwall, L. G., & Leaf, S. L. (2002). In search of the unique aspects of hope: Pinning our hopes on positive emotions, future-oriented thinking, hard times, and other people. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 276–288.
Benson, P. L., Leffert, N., Scales, P. C., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Beyond the “village” rhetoric: Creating healthy communities for children and adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2, 138–159.
Bowers, E. P., Geldhof, J. G., Schmid, K. L., Napolitano, C. M., Minor, K., & Lerner, J. V. (2012). Relationships with important nonparental adults and positive youth development: An examination of youth self-regulatory strengths as mediators. Research in Human Development, 9(4), 298–316.
Bowers, E. B., & Johnson, S. K. (2013, May). The adult social milieu and character development: Potential mechanisms of influence. In N. Hurd (Chair), Mentoring and adolescent development: Assessing pathways and exploring complexities. Symposium conducted at the annual meeting of the Association of Psychological Science, Washington, DC.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment (Vol. 1). New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and loss: Vol. 2. Separation (Vol. 2). New York: Basic Books.
Cheung, G. W., & Rensvold, R. B. (2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 233–255.
Ciarrochi, J., Heaven, P. C. L., & Davies, F. (2007). The impact of hope, self-esteem, and attributional style on adolescents’ school grades and emotional well-being: A longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 1161–1178.
Collins, L. M., & Lanza, S. T. (2010). Latent class and latent transition analysis: With applications in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Damon, W., Menon, J., & Bronk, K. C. (2003). The development of purpose during adolescence. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 119–128.
Dubow, E. F., Arnett, M., Smith, K., & Ippolito, M. F. (2001). Predictors of future expectations of inner-city children: A 9-month prospective study. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 21(1), 5–28.
Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle; selected papers. New York: International Universities Press.
Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York: W. W. Norton.
Flanagan, C. A. (2003). Trust, identity, and civic hope. Applied Developmental Science, 7(3), 165–171.
Flanagan, C. (2008). Private anxieties and public hopes: The perils and promise of youth in the context of globalization. In J. Cole & D. Durham (Eds.), Figuring the Future: Globalization and the Temporalities of Children and Youth (pp. 125–150). Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of Advanced Research Press.
Flanagan, C. & Levine, P. (2010, spring). Youth civic engagement during the transition to adulthood. In M. Waters, G. Berlin, & F. Furstenberg (Eds.), Transition to adulthood, Princeton/Brookings The Future of Children, Vol. 20(1), 159–180.
Kerpelman, J. L., Eryigit, S., & Stephens, C. J. (2008). African American adolescents’ future education orientation: associations with self-efficacy, ethnic identity, and perceived parental support. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37, 997–1008.
Leffert, N., Benson, P. L., Scales, P. C., Sharma, A. U., Drake, D. R., & Blyth, D. A. (1998). Developmental assets: Measurement and prediction of risk behaviors among adolescents. Applied Developmental Science, 2(4), 209–230.
Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Almerigi, J., Theokas, C., Phelps, E., Gestsdottir, S., et al. (2005). Positive youth development, participation in community youth development programs, and community contributions of fifth grade adolescents: Findings from the first wave of the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. Journal of Early Adolescence, 25(1), 17–71.
Lerner, R. M., Lerner, J. V., Bowers, E. P., Lewin-Bizan, S., & von Eye, A. (Eds.) (2011). Individual and contextual bases of thriving in adolescence: Findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. Journal of Adolescence, 34(6), 1107–1114.
Lerner, R. M., von Eye, A., Lerner, J. V., & Lewin-Bizan, S. (2009). Exploring the foundations and functions of adolescent thriving within the 4-H study of positive youth development: A view of the issues. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(5), 567–570.
Lerner, R. M., von Eye, A., Lerner, J. V., Lewin-Bizan, S., & Bowers, E. P. (Eds.). (2010). The meaning and measurement of thriving in adolescence: Findings from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(7), 707–719.
Lewin-Bizan, S., Lynch, A. D., Fay, K., Schmid, K., McPherran, C., Lerner, J. V., et al. (2010). Trajectories of positive and negative behaviors from early- to middle-adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 751–763.
Little, T. D. (in press). Longitudinal structural equation modeling. New York: Guilford press.
Little, T. D., Snyder, R., & Wehmeyer, M. L. (2006). The agentic self: On the nature and origins of personal agency across the lifespan. In D. Mroczek & T. D. Little (Eds.), The handbook of personality development (pp. 61–79). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.
Lo, Y., Mendell, N. R., & Rubin, D. B. (2001). Testing the number of components in a normal mixture. Biometrika, 88, 767–778.
Lopez, S. J., Agrawal, S., & Calderon, V. J. (2010). The Gallup student poll technical report. Washington, DC: Gallup.
Lopez, S. J., Rose, S., Robinson, C., Marques, S. C., & Pais-Ribeiro, J. (2009). Measuring and promoting hope in schoolchildren. In R. Gilman, E. S. Huebner, & M. J. Furlong (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology in schools (pp. 37–50). New York, NY: Routledge.
Lummis, C. D. (1996). The democratic virtues. In C. D. Lummis (Ed.), Radical democracy, (pp. 143–157). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
Luyckx, K., Schwartz, S. J., Goossens, L., Soenens, B., & Beyers, W. (2008). Developmental typologies of identity formation and adjustment in female emerging adults: A latent class growth analysis approach. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8(4), 595–619.
Mariano, J. M., & Going, J. (2011). Youth purpose and positive youth development. In R. Lerner, & J. Lerner (Eds.), Advances in child development and behavior. positive youth development: Research and applications for promoting thriving in adolescence. Boston, MA: Elsevier.
Mascolo, M. F., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). The dynamic development of thinking, feeling, and acting over the life span. In W. F. Overton, & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of life-span development, Vol. 1: Biology, cognition and methods across the life-span, (pp. 149-194). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
McCabe, K., & Barnett, D. (2000). First comes work, then comes marriage: Future orientation among African American young adolescents. Family Relations, 49(1), 63–70.
McLachlan, G. J., & Peel, D. (2000). Finite mixture models. New York: Wiley.
Muthén, B. O., & Muthén, L. K. (2000). Integrating person-centered and variable-centered analyses: Growth mixture modeling with latent trajectory classes. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 24(6), 882–891.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2012). Mplus user’s guide (7th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén and Muthén.
Nagin, D. (2005). Group-based modeling of development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard.
Nurmi, J.-E. (1989). Development of orientation to the future during early adolescence: A four-year longitudinal study and two cross-sectional comparisons. International Journal of Psychology, 24, 195–214.
Nurmi, J. E. (1991). How do adolescents see their future? A review of the development of future orientation and planning. Developmental Review, 11, 1–59.
Nurmi, J.-E., & Pulliainen, H. (1991). The changing parent-child relationship, self-esteem, and intelligence as determinants of orientation to the future during early adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 14(1), 35–51.
Overton, W. F. (2010). Life-span development: Concepts and issues. In R. M. Lerner (Ed.), The handbook of lifespan development. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Overton, W. F., & Müller, U. (2013). Meta-theories, theories, and concepts in the study of development. In R. M. Lerner, M. A. Easterbrooks, & J. Mistry (Eds.). Comprehensive handbook of psychology: Vol. 6. Developmental psychology (2nd edn). Editor-In-Chief: I. B. Weiner. New York: Wiley.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Rotenberg, K. J. (1995). The socialisation of trust: Parents’ and children’s interpersonal trust. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 18, 718–726.
Rotter, J. B. (1980). Interpersonal trust, trustworthiness and gullibility. American Psychologist, 35, 1–7.
Schmid, K. L., & Lopez, S. (2011). Positive pathways to adulthood: The role of hope in adolescents’ constructions of their futures. In R. M. Lerner, J. V. Lerner, & J. B. Benson (Eds.), Advances in child development and behavior: Positive youth development (Vol. 41, pp. 72–89). London, England: Academic Press.
Schmid, K. L., Phelps, E., & Lerner, R. M. (2011). Constructing positive futures: Modeling the relationship between adolescents’ hopeful future expectations and intentional self-regulation in predicting positive youth development. Journal of Adolescence, 34(6), 1127–1135.
Seginer, R., & Lilach, E. (2004). How adolescents construct their future: The effect of loneliness on future orientation. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 625–643.
Seiffge-Krenke, I., Kiuru, N., & Nurmi, J.-E. (2010). Adolescents as “producers of their own development”: Correlates and consequences of the importance and attainment of developmental tasks. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 7(4), 479–510.
Small, S. A., & Rodgers, K. B. (1995). Teen assessment project (TAP) survey question bank. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Snyder, C. R. (1994). The psychology of hope: You can get there from here. NewYork: Free Press.
Snyder, C. R., Cheavens, J., & Sympson, S. C. (1997). Hope: An individual motive for social commerce. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 1(2), 107–118.
Stoddard, S. A., Henly, S. J., Sieving, R. E., & Bolland, J. (2011). Social connections, trajectories of hopelessness, and serious violence in impoverished urban youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40, 278–295.
Tennen, H., Affleck, G., & Tennen, R. (2002). Clipped feathers: The theory and measurement of hope. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 311–317.
Trommsdorff, G. (1983). Future orientation and socialization. International Journal of Psychology, 18, 381–406.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported in part by grants from the National 4-H Council, the Altria Corporation, the Thrive Foundation for Youth, and the John Templeton Foundation.
Authors’ contributions
KSC conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; SKJ helped to draft the manuscript, participated in the statistical analysis, and helped to interpret the data; MHB helped to perform statistical analysis and helped to draft the manuscript; RML participated in the design of the study and helped oversee the development of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Callina, K.S., Johnson, S.K., Buckingham, M.H. et al. Hope in Context: Developmental Profiles of Trust, Hopeful Future Expectations, and Civic Engagement Across Adolescence. J Youth Adolescence 43, 869–883 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0096-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0096-9