Caring about Tomorrow: the Role of Potency, Socio-Economic Status and Gender in Israeli Adolescents’ Academic Future Orientation

The construction of future expectations for higher education is one of the key processes in adolescents’ lives. However, little is known about the factors facilitating this construction. The current study explored the contribution of potency (i.e., self-confidence, mastery, alienation, and anomie) to the building of adolescents’ academic future orientation in a sample 172 Israeli early-to mid-adolescents. In addition, the moderating role of adolescents’ SES and gender on the relationships between potency variables and academic future orientation was explored. The findings indicated that future orientation was enhanced by adolescents’ self-confidence. The moderation analysis showed that boys’ perceived anomie was associated with a decrease in their future orientation. Anomie also contributed to a decrease in academic future orientation, but only in low SES adolescents.