A Sense of Purpose in Life Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents

Background & Purpose: A sense of purpose in life is a fundamental aspect of positive youth development and has been linked to a wide range of important developmental outcomes. Given that previous studies primarily focused on the experiences of White middle-class adolescents, this study explored how ethnic minority adolescents define their purpose in life, what elements of purpose are commonly identified, and how those definitions align with the key components of purpose.

Methods: The participants (N = 128, 75 female) were primarily Latinx (n = 67), Pacific Islanders (n = 39), or Asian American adolescents (n = 22), with mean (SD) age of 15.7 (1.32), in urban areas of the Mountain West region. They were recruited from two local youth-serving agencies (n = 48), a university-sponsored public event for minority high school students (n = 33), or public high school after-school program (n = 47). Participants were asked to define “what it means to have purpose in your life” in their own words. Purpose in life was assessed using the Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS), a 12-item self-report measure with 3 subscales: meaning (α = .83), goal-directedness (α = .78), and beyond-the-self (α= .84). Responses to the open-ended question were coded using the five themes identified in the literature: 1) Foundation and Direction (F&D), 2) Happiness, 3) Prosocial/Beyond-the-self, 4) Religion, and 5) Occupational/Financial (O/F). Each response was coded according to how in depth the adolescent discussed each category using the following scoring: 0 = no mention, 1 = some mention, 2 = a primary point, or 3 = the sole point. Three MSW- and one counseling psychology-trained raters coded the response independently; any coding discrepancies were discussed to reach agreement.

Results: Most participants were born in the U.S. (n = 114, 89.1%) and qualified for free or reduced school meals (n = 77, 60.2%). The most prevalent theme of the purpose was F&D (n = 87, 68%, “having a clear sense of direction, meaning, and significance”), followed by Prosocial (n = 39, 30.5%, “make other lives better, make the community or world to better place”), Happiness (n = 22, 17.2%, “find what I can do to keep doing the thing that brings me happiness”), O/F (n = 14, 10.9%, “to become doctor, scientist”), and Religion (n = 6, 4.7%, “to carry the cross for Jesus and to share the word of God”). Additionally, a new theme, Family, was identified (n = 11, 8.6%, “family is my whole purpose no matter what”). About 34% (n = 44) mentioned multiple themes, with girls reporting more family-related purpose. Adolescents with O/F oriented purpose showed lower levels on the general meaning subscale of CPS, while those with prosocial purpose demonstrated higher levels on the Beyond-the-self subscale of CPS.

Conclusions and Implications: This finding suggests that while ethnic minority adolescents demonstrate similar themes of purpose definition, family may play a more salient role in defining purpose, particularly for female adolescents. This finding should be further explored within the context of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.