How mothers affect adolescents' future orientation: A two-source analysis

To expand our knowledge of the effect of parents on adolescents' future orientation we developed a seven-step model which describes the indirect effect (via adolescents' self-esteem) of the future orientation that mothers construct for their adolescent children on adolescents' future orientation. Mother-constructed and adolescent-constructed future orientation each consists of three components: motivational, cognitive representation, and behavioral engagement. Mothers' future orientation focuses on their adolescent child (e.g., "it is important that in the future my daughter/son develops an occupational career"). The model is empirically estimated with data collected from 203 Israeli Jewish 11th grade girls (n=99) and boys and their mothers, who responded to future orientation questionnaires assessing two domains: work and career (i.e., issues related to the occupational or professional career adolescents will have in the future), and marriage and family (i.e., issues related to marriage and the family adolescents will raise in the future). Adolescents responded also to a self-esteem scale. Structural equation modeling showed an acceptable fit between the theoretical and empirical models for work and career, and marriage family, respectively. The findings are discussed in relation to three issues: the effect of parents on adolescent children, the mediating functions of self representation, and the generality of the three-component future orientation model.