Tracks and Transitions—A Comparison of Adolescent Future‐oriented Goals, Explorations, and Commitments in Australia, Israel, and Finland

It has been suggested that age‐related normative demands and institutional tracks play an important role in the development of adolescent future orientation, identity explorations, and commitments. In order to study this, 71 Australian boys and 49 girls, 23 Israeli boys and 23 girls, and 36 Finnish boys and 66 girls aged between 16 and 17 were investigated. They filled in the Hopes and Fears Questionnaire measuring the content and temporal extension of goals, and the Exploration and Commitment Inventory. The results showed that developmental tasks, role transitions, and institutional tracks play an important role in the development of adolescent future orientation, explorations, and commitments. Due to earlier school transitions, Australian adolescents expected that their hopes related to education and work, and education‐related concerns, would be realized earlier than Finnish and Israeli youths. In turn, because of military service commitments of several years, Israeli youths expected that both their hopes and fears concerning education would be realized later in life than Australian adolescents. On the other hand, Finnish adolescents expected goals concerning their future family to be actualized earlier than Australian and Israeli youths. They also showed more exploration and commitment concerning their future family than did Australian adolescents.