On Purpose: Motivational and Contextual Predictors of Purpose and Positive Engagement Among Urban-Residing, African American Youth.

Abstract

Popular narratives of African American adolescents in inner city school contexts underscore problems related to low achievement, school disengagement, and delinquency. In reality, many youth in urban high schools experience positive developmental trajectories that inform identity processes and create successful routes through adolescence. Part of the identity-formation process in adolescence includes acquiring a purpose, defined as “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self” (Damon, Menon, & Bronk, 2003, p. 121). Though studies have highlighted the importance of purpose, few studies have examined purpose in low-income, African American adolescents. This quantitative study used an integrative personality framework to examine purpose and its correlates among urban-residing, African American high school students (N=151, 51% Male). Study 1 explored associations between purpose and personality, motivation, and contextual characteristics. Study 2 sought to identify profiles of purpose in African American students. Study 3 examined the relationships between these profiles of purpose and engagement. At the individual level, highly motivated students and more conscientious students reported higher purpose scores. Related to context, students who felt that they mattered to an adult in school scored higher on purpose. Interestingly, students who felt that their neighborhoods had less social capital also were more likely to have purpose. Three profiles of purpose emerged in Study 2: Achieved Purpose (high purpose exploration/high purpose commitment), Unattained Purpose (high exploration/low commitment), and Diffused Purpose (low exploration/low commitment). Adolescents in the Achieved Purpose group had higher indicators of motivation, mattering, conscientiousness, and hope than their peers. Study 3 found that purpose profiles were associated with engaged living, but not school engagement. Students in the Unattained Purpose group were less engaged than their peers in the community through activity involvement and volunteerism. Findings from this study reveal the importance of both motivation and contextual factors in fostering purposefulness among African American youth in urban schools. Efforts to improve achievement and well-being for students in urban contexts should consider interventions that provide opportunities for students to discover purpose and engage in activities that can support optimal development.