Adolescent passage to adulthood: Future orientation in the context of culture, age, and gender

The main objective of the present study has been to examine the future orientation constructed by transition to modernity adolescents in the context of age and gender. To that end we analyzed the hopes and fears for the future reported by Israeli Druze (N=276) and Jewish (N=308) younger (9th graders) and older (12th graders) adolescents, as cases of transition to modernity and modern adolescents, respectively. The hypothesis predicting that Druze adolescents will invest less in the prospective life course domains (e.g., higher education, work and career) and more in the existential domains (e.g., self) was supported. The hypothesis postulating that across-age gender differences will be more stable in the Druze than in the Jewish group was not supported. Instead, interaction effects indicating that older females invested more in adult roles than younger females were found only for the Druze sample. Results were discussed in terms of the cultural, normative developmental, and political aspects of the Druze macrosystem and the motivational principle of least necessary expenditure (. Achievement motivation and its constructs: A cognitive model. Motivation and Emotion, 1, 283-329). It has been suggested that Druze adolescents employ this motivational principle to construct a culturally acceptable future orientation.