Elämänpäämäärät jäsentyvät tekemällä, pohdiskelemalla ja odottelemalla: – haastattelututkimus pirkanmaalaisista nuorista

This study contributes to the prevalent discourse concerning the problems of young people, building on earlier findings on the relevance of life purposes to resilience and young people’s development. Purpose is understood as a key component of positive youth development and consists of three dimensions:
(1) it is a goal that makes one’s life meaningful; (2) it is pursued with perseverance; and (3) it contributes to society. The study explores how young people themselves understand the process of purpose formation and its different aspects. The data include 17 semi-structured interviews of 19-year-olds in 2023, drawing on their written responses in previous studies conducted in 2020 (N = 843) and 2022 (n = 73) as prompts. The research questions were: What kinds of life purposes do Finnish adolescents perceive themselves to have? How do Finnish adolescents perceive purpose formation? The interview data were analyzed through deductive and inductive content analysis. Purposes were largely self-oriented. However, whereas 9th graders (N = 843) prioritized the self-centred pursuit of happiness or self-improvement, the interviews at age 19 more often included helping others and making a difference. More concretely, the interviewed adolescents’ life purposes included career goals, leisure-time activities and close relationships.

The adolescents described their purpose formation as developing through trial and error, as reflecting inner desires and competencies, or as waiting for purpose to unfold over time. According to them, purpose is constantly evolving and can be changed whenever needed. They also considered that it is acceptable to have short periods without any purpose. The findings are discussed from the perspective of previous studies on adolescents’ life purposes, and their implications for supporting purpose formation processes in education and youth work.