Ask a teenager what they want to do with their life and you’ll get all kinds of answers. But research demonstrates that what may be more important is not a teen’s purpose — a life aim, or direction for their life that guides their goals — but how steadily they feel it from day to day.
A new Cornell study, published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, suggests that teens who experience purpose consistently over time — not just intensely — may benefit most from it. The findings add a meaningful new dimension to how we think about purpose in young people’s lives.
We’ve written here before about the importance of purpose: One study found when teens feel more purposeful, they also report higher well-being and better moods. And we’ve written about how paying attention to daily fluctuations in purpose can help adults figure out what gives their life meaning.
Now the research team is focusing on what fluctuations in purpose mean for teens.
Most research to date has treated purpose as something measurable at a single point in time — a trait you either have or don’t. But Anthony Burrow, director of the Purpose Science and Innovation Exchange at our Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, argues that purpose is more dynamic than that: “Researchers have mostly considered purpose as a trait and not thought as much about the moments in a person’s life when they feel far more purposeful than others, or when they feel less so,” he says.
In the most recent study, 320 high schoolers enrolled in a 10-week learning challenge from GripTape, a non-profit that helps teens and young adults pursue their passions. The teens received $500 and worked with a mentor to pursue a passion of their choosing. Burrow and research partner Kaitlyn Ratner of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign had teens complete an initial survey about how purposeful and engaged their lives felt. They also asked teens each day during a 70-day period, “How purposeful did you feel today?”
The results showed that teens with a higher baseline sense of purpose tended to experience purpose more consistently over time, and that those with less day-to-day variability reported greater well-being and higher self-esteem.
“Like most things worth having, extreme fluctuations might prove to be problematic over the long haul,” Burrow said. “Remaining even keel is probably better.”
One finding stands out as especially practical: Among participants, teens reported feeling most purposeful on days when they met with their mentors. Burrow’s team has also found that programs such as GripTape that give teens opportunities to shape their own learning can heighten purpose.
The findings suggest that parents and mentors can monitor variability in teens’ sense of purpose and try to reduce big swings, which could reflect vulnerability in how teens are adapting to life’s challenges.
“This is an opportunity to pay more attention to the fullness of our experiences,” Burrow explains. “Let’s keep monitoring for experiences and settings that seem to support a sense of purpose, because if we do that, we might be able to curate more enduring positive experiences for young people.”
The take-home message: Cultivating purpose in teens isn’t a one-time conversation or a single transformative moment but an ongoing process that benefits from consistent, supportive relationships and environments that let young people pursue what matters to them.