• A sense of purpose may have significant

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Mon Feb 13 21:30:36 2023
    A sense of purpose may have significant impact on teens' emotional well-
    being

    Date:
    February 13, 2023
    Source:
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
    Summary:
    Feeling a sense of purpose has a significant impact on adolescents'
    emotional well-being.


    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIN Email
    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Adolescents who feel a greater sense of purpose may be happier and more satisfied with life than peers who feel less purposeful, suggests a
    recent study of more than 200 teens.


    ========================================================================== Studies with adults have suggested that a sense of purpose in life is
    an integral component of well-being that fuels hope and optimism and has
    a variety of positive effects on individuals' physical and mental health.

    However, less is known about the effects of purposefulness in adolescents,
    who, while characteristically hopeful, are in the throes of developing
    their identities, making choices that reflect who they are and aspire
    to be, according to the study.

    Educational psychology professor Kaylin Ratner of the University of
    Illinois Urbana-Champaign led the current study, which examined how
    youths' feelings of purposefulness related to their daily levels of life satisfaction and subjective well-being.

    "Teens who scored high on purpose were more satisfied with their lives
    and experienced more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions,"
    said Ratner, who collected the data while working as a postdoctoral
    associate at Cornell University. "Importantly, we found that on the days
    when these adolescents felt more purposeful than usual, they also tended
    to experience greater well-being." Her co-authors included Anthony
    L. Burrow, the Ferris Family Professor of Life Course Studies and the
    director of the Bonfenbrenner Center for Translational Research; and
    Qingyi Li and Gaoxia Zhu, both then-postdoctoral research associates,
    all of Cornell University.

    Published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, the project also examined
    how subclinical autistic traits that fell below the diagnostic threshold
    for autism -- behavioral and cognitive patterns such as poor social
    skills and difficulty shifting one's attention -- related to these teens'
    sense of purpose in life and their overall happiness.

    Each day for 70 days, the participants -- teens ages 14-19 -- were asked
    to rate how purposeful they felt, how satisfied they were with their
    life and the levels of positive and negative emotions they were feeling.

    All of those in the study were participants in GripTape, a nationwide
    nonprofit in the U.S. that strives to instill a sense of agency in
    youths by providing them with the resources to pursue a 10-week Learning Challenge project of their choosing.

    Applicants whose Learning Challenge proposals are accepted receive up
    to a $500 grant and an adult mentor who supports them in pursuing a
    project they are passionate about, such as starting a small business or researching higher education resources for undocumented teens, according
    to the study.

    Melody Estevez, the research manager at GripTape, also was a co-author
    of the study.

    At the beginning of the Learning Challenge, the study participants
    completed a 28-item survey that assessed their levels of subclinical
    autistic traits. A higher aggregate score suggested the teen had greater numbers of these traits, Ratner said.

    Each day, the participants completed assessments, rating on a five-point
    scale how purposeful they currently felt. Ratner's team calculated
    the average of these daily purpose scores to determine each person's dispositional sense of purpose -- their characteristic level of this
    trait -- across the 70 days studied.

    The researchers also tracked day-to-day variations in purposefulness
    by subtracting the teens' daily purpose score from their dispositional
    level of purpose.

    On the daily assessments, those in the study rated how much they were
    feeling four positive emotions -- content, relaxed, enthusiastic or
    joyful -- and four negative emotions -- angry, anxious, sluggish or sad.

    Participants' composite positive and negative emotional affect scores,
    along with their life satisfaction scores, were used to assess their psychological well-being.

    Feeling more purposeful than usual on any single day was a unique
    predictor of participants' emotional well-being on those days, regardless
    of their dispositional level of purposefulness, the team found.

    "Our findings show that no matter where you are in comparison with
    your peers, when you feel more purposeful than usual, you have better outcomes," Ratner said. "Purpose is accessible to everyone. What we
    need to do is help individuals feel more purposeful from day to day."
    Ratner and her team found that the participants with greater levels of subclinical autistic traits tended to report higher levels of negative feelings, and lower levels of life satisfaction and positive feelings from
    day to day. However, the strength of the association between well-being
    and daily purpose was not moderated by these traits.

    In other words, those who had more of these traits seemed to be able to
    reap well-being benefits at levels equal to their peers who had fewer
    of these traits, Ratner said. She cautioned, however, that the findings
    could differ for youths with known clinical diagnoses of autism.

    "Our 70-day study is one of the most consistent examinations of youths' purposefulness to date and helps cement the beneficial influence it has
    on their well-being," Ratner said. "With the groundwork laid by this
    study, interventions that promote purposefulness may be viable routes to enhancing the well-being of many young people, including neurodiverse
    youths." The population in the study was 70% female. Nearly 31% were
    Asian, 22% were African American or Black, 18% were white and 14% were Hispanic. The researchers said because the sample was not representative
    of the gender and racial and ethnic diversity among teens in the general
    U.S. population, the findings may not be generalizable.

    The research was supported by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative,
    an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

    * RELATED_TOPICS
    o Mind_&_Brain
    # Autism # Child_Development # Child_Psychology #
    Learning_Disorders # K-12_Education # Intelligence #
    Psychology # Racial_Issues
    * RELATED_TERMS
    o Emotional_detachment o Love o Fear o Panic_attack
    o Limbic_system o Negotiation o Inferiority_complex o
    Intellectual_giftedness

    ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana-Champaign,_News_Bureau.

    Original written by Sharita Forrest. Note: Content may be edited for
    style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Kaylin Ratner, Qingyi Li, Gaoxia Zhu, Melody Estevez, Anthony
    L. Burrow.

    Daily Adolescent Purposefulness, Daily Subjective Well-Being, and
    Individual Differences in Autistic Traits. Journal of Happiness
    Studies, 2023; DOI: 10.1007/s10902-023-00625-7 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230213201032.htm

    --- up 50 weeks, 10 hours, 50 minutes
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)