Bidirectional Associations Between Valued Activities and Adolescent Positive Adjustment in a Longitudinal Study: Positive Mood as a Mediator.

Although activity involvement has been linked to positive youth development, the value that adolescents place on these activities (i.e., how much they enjoy the activities, find them important, and spend time on them) has received less attention. The purpose of the present study was to examine the b...

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Published in:Journal of Youth & Adolescence Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 208 - 221
Main Authors: DesRoches, Andrea, Willoughby, Teena
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Feb2014
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Feb2014
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        10.1007/s10964-013-9957-x
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        atl: Bidirectional Associations Between Valued Activities and Adolescent Positive Adjustment in a Longitudinal Study: Positive Mood as a Mediator.
      aug:
        au:
          DesRoches, Andrea
          Willoughby, Teena
        affil: Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines L2S 3A1 Canada
      su:
        Ontario
        Hobbies
        Adaptability (Personality)
        Emotions
        Self-esteem testing
        Self-perception
        Adolescence
        Psychology
        Chi-squared test
        Confidence intervals
        Longitudinal method
        Probability theory
        Questionnaires
        Research funding
        Descriptive statistics
      sug:
        subj:
          Hobbies
          Adaptability (Personality)
          Emotions
          Self-esteem testing
          Self-perception
          Adolescence
          Psychology
          Ontario
          Chi-squared test
          Confidence intervals
          Longitudinal method
          Probability theory
          Questionnaires
          Research funding
          Descriptive statistics
      keyword:
        Adolescent adjustment
        Mediation
        Positive youth development
        Valued activities
        Adolescent adjustment
        Mediation
        Positive youth development
        Valued activities
      ab: Although activity involvement has been linked to positive youth development, the value that adolescents place on these activities (i.e., how much they enjoy the activities, find them important, and spend time on them) has received less attention. The purpose of the present study was to examine the bidirectional longitudinal association between engagement in valued activities and adolescent positive adjustment (optimism, purpose in life, and self-esteem), as well as investigate a possible underlying mechanism for this link. High school students ( N = 2,270, 48.7 % female) from Ontario, Canada completed questionnaires annually in grades 10, 11, and 12. Auto-regressive cross-lagged path analyses were conducted over time, controlling for gender, parental education, and academic grades. Greater engagement in valued activities predicted higher optimism, purpose, and self-esteem over time. Importantly, the results did not support an alternate hypothesis of selection effects, in that adolescents who were better adjusted were not more likely than their peers to engage in valued activities over time. We also found that the longitudinal associations between valued activities and positive adjustment may be due partly to an underlying effect of increased positive mood. Thus, engagement in valued activities appears to be important for adolescent positive adjustment, and may help to foster thriving. Communities, educators, and parents should actively support and encourage adolescents to develop valued activities, and seek to ensure that there are ample opportunities and resources available for them to do so.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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