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Hope in Context: Developmental Profiles of Trust, Hopeful Future Expectations, and Civic Engagement Across Adolescence

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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.

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Notes

  1. 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.

  2. 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.”

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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.

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  1. Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA

    Kristina Schmid Callina, Sara K. Johnson, Mary H. Buckingham & Richard M. Lerner

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  1. Kristina Schmid Callina
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  2. Sara K. Johnson
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  3. Mary H. Buckingham
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  4. Richard M. Lerner
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Correspondence to Richard M. Lerner.

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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

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