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doi: 10.1111/j.1468-5884.2012.00522.x
University of Haifa
Despite popular beliefs and the growing importance of peer relationships during adolescence,
several decades of research have shown that
parents continue to be significant figures for
their adolescent children (Laursen & Collins,
2009). Combining our interest in adolescents
future orientation with the continued importance of parents for adolescents, we have been
conducting an on-going project on the effect of
parents on adolescents future orientation.
While earlier studies have examined the
effect of perceived parenting (Seginer, 2009;
Seginer & Mahajna, 2004; Seginer, Vermulst, &
Shoyer, 2004) and perceived parents beliefs
(Seginer & Mahajna, in press) on future orien-
*Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to: Rachel Seginer, Faculty of Education, University
of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel. (E-mail: rseginer@edu.haifa.ac.il)
2012 Japanese Psychological Association. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
FO
Cog
311
FO
Behav
Ch Self
Rep.
FO
Mot
FO
Cog
FO
Behav
Figure 1 The indirect effect of the mother-constructed future orientation on the adolescent-constructed
future orientation: A theoretical model of the three-component approach.
Japanese Psychological Association 2012.
312
functioning in general and on future orientation in particular, and the other is about the
similarity between parents and adolescents
future orientation. These studies are briefly
reviewed below (for a more extensive review,
see Seginer, 2009).
The future orientation of parents and
adolescents: Earlier research. The pioneering work of Trommsdorff (1983) in Germany on
the future orientation of adolescents and their
parents was followed by research in Finland
(Malmberg, Ehrman, & Lithen, 2005), Italy
(Lanz, Rosnati, Marta, & Scabini, 2001; Scabini,
Marta, & Lanz, 2006), and in Muslim and Jewish
Israel (Seginer, 2009). Given their cultural diversity, historical time span and different research
questions, the low agreement between the
researchers findings is not surprising. Nevertheless, all studies showed that, when asked about
the materialization of future hopes, plans, and
goals, regardless of diversity, the parents were
more optimistic than their adolescent children.
Although much of the research examines
parent-adolescent congruence, two studies
also tested the relations between the parents
and the adolescents future orientation. One
(Malmberg et al., 2005) showed that the effect
of the parents estimate of goal fulfillment on
the adolescents goals is both direct and mediated by the adolescent-parent relationships.
The second (Shoyer, 2006), using the threecomponent model approach, showed that the
effect of mothers on adolescents future orientation is both component and domain specific.
Specifically, whereas the motivational component of the mothers does not affect that of the
adolescents, the mothers cognitive component
has a direct effect on the adolescents cognitive
component for both the work and career and
the marriage and family domains. The mothers
behavioral component affects the behavioral
component of the adolescents only for the work
and career domain.
Altogether, the two sets of findings suggest
two competing home environment forces. On
the one hand, homes serve as an arena of social
learning resulting from parent-adolescent interaction, parents behavior, and the cultural
313
314
Method
Participants
Participants (N = 203) were Israeli Jewish 11th
grade girls (n = 99) and boys attending a
Japanese Psychological Association 2012.
315
Future Orientation
Mothers
Motivational
component
Value
Expectance
Internal Control
Cognitive component
Hopes
Behavioral component
Exploration
Commitment
Self Esteem Adolescent 1
Expectance
Internal Control
Cognitive component
Hopes
Behavioral component
Exploration
Commitment
Sample item
No. of
items
4.37 (.62)
4.49 (.57)
a
reliability
a
reliability
Mean
(SD)
No. of
items
.76
4.41 (.54)
.75
.79
4.54 (.56)
.85
4.50 (.50)
.64
4.47 (.56)
.76
3.03 (.86)
.84
2.86 (.81)
.82
4.29 (.70)
r = .64*
4.04 (.69)
.69
3.74 (.67)
r = .49*
3.62 (.93)
3.88 (.89)
.79
4.16 (.65)
.70
4.44 (.54)
.76
4.42 (.72)
.90
3.85 (.72)
.81
3.75 (.80)
.89
4.28 (.61)
.70
3.59 (.87)
.76
3.27 (.92)
.86
3.02 (.98)
.60
2.69 (.95)
.87
1.80 (.74)
.70
2.80 (.90)
.85
2.49 (.84)
.56
r = .66*
*p < .001.
three motivational variables, the cognitive representation variable, and the two behavioral
variables. The My Future questionnaire consists
of items related to the cognitive representation
of each domain, and respondents report how
often (1 = seldom to 5 = always) they think
about each issue in terms of hopes and fears.
316
Results
Preliminary analysis. Hypothesis testing
was preceded by four preliminary analyses: sex
differences for the study variables, differences
between adolescent participants of this study
(n = 203) and those who did not participate
because their mothers did not respond to the
questionnaire (n = 313), the relation between
the background variables and the study variables, and correlation coefficients between
mothers and adolescents scores for each
future orientation variable. Sex differences
were tested by one-way MANOVAs run separately for the work and career and marriage
and family of (a) mothers of girls and boys and
(b) girls and boys. These analyses showed a
nonsignificant sex effect, with one exception:
girls scored higher on exploration of marriage
and family options than boys, M = 1.98 and 1.64,
and SDs = .74 and .71, p = .001 for girls and
boys, respectively.
The differences between the participants of
this analysis and the nonparticipants were also
tested using one-way MANOVAs for each
domain. They showed only two significant findings, both pertaining to the work and career
domain: the mean score of cognitive representation, M = 3.27 and 3.56, SDs = .92 and .88,
p = .001 for the participants of this analysis and
nonparticipants, respectively, and commitment,
M = 2.80 and 3.02, SDs = .91 and 1.00, p = .02
for the participants of this analysis and
nonparticipants, respectively, were lower
for participants of this study than for the
nonparticipants.
Correlations between background variables
(i.e., mothers level of education, mothers
Japanese Psychological Association 2012.
country of birth, family size, and family structure) and the study variables were low and
mostly nonsignificant. Consequently, the data
collected from girls and boys were combined
and the background variables were omitted
from the analysis. Correlations between the
mothers and the adolescents future orientation variables were run separately for each
domain. The results showed that the relations
between the mothers and the adolescents
scores for each empirical variable tended to be
lower for the work and career domain, rs
ranging from -.04 n.s. to .16, p < .05, median
r = .14, than for the marriage and family
domain, rs ranging from -.07 n.s. to .26, p < .001,
median r = .23.
Structural equation models. The fit of the
data to the model was tested using structural
equation modeling (SEM, AMOS 17). Each
structural equation model consists of two
parts, the measurement part (factor loadings)
and the structural part (relations between
latent variables) estimated simultaneously. The
measurement part shows all indicators are
loaded significantly, p < .001, on their latent
variables. The fit of the models is presented
with the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and the
Root Mean Squared Error (RMSEA). Analyses testing the fit of the empirical models
(Figure 2ab) are acceptable for both the work
and career domain, with RMSEA of .069 and
CFI of .916, and the marriage and family
domain, with RMSEA of .072 and CFI of .906.
In addition, we estimated two alternative
models of theoretical relevance. In the first, selfesteem was omitted and the model consisted of
only a direct path between the mothers behavioral component and the adolescents motivational component. For the work and career
domain the fit was acceptable, CFI = .913 and
RMSEA = .076, but the path between the
mothers and the adolescents future orientation
was nonsignificant; for the marriage and family
domain the analysis resulted in poor fit indices,
CFI = .817 and RMSEA = .112. Given that
parents and children reciprocally affect each
other (Laursen & Collins, 2009), in the second
model we reversed the order of the mothers
Discussion
The main objective of this study has been to
continue the work initially carried out by
several researchers on the effect of parents on
adolescents future orientation. Those studies
(a)
X1
Child
Mother
X2
X3
Y1
.46
FO
Mot
317
Y2
.34
FO
Cog
Y3
Y4
.26
FO
Behav
Y5
.59
Ch Self
Rep.
=.83
=.21
Y7
Y8
Y9
.44
FO
Mot
.66
CFI = .916
FO
Behav
=.69
6
.70
N = 203
Y11
=.20
Y10
FO
Cog
=.32
=.07
Y6
.31
RMSEA = .069
(b)
Child
Mother
X1
X2
FO
Mot
X3
Y1
.19
Y2
.27
FO
Cog
Y3
=.35
2
.48
CFI = .906
.24
FO
Behav
=.04
N = 203
Y4
Y5
Y6
.43
Ch Self
Rep.
=.06
3
Y7
FO
Mot
Y8
Y9
.39
=.22
4
Y10
.51
FO
Cog
Y11
FO
Behav
=.40
=.16
.22
RMSEA = .072
Figure 2 (a) Empirical estimate of the mother-constructed adolescent-constructed future orientation model
for the work and career domain. (b) Empirical estimate of the mother-constructed adolescent-constructed
future orientation model for the marriage and family domain.
Japanese Psychological Association 2012.
318
(Seginer & Mahajna, in press) shows that perceived parents beliefs are directly related to
future orientation in the higher education, and
marriage and family domains. The second is a
study by Knafo and Schwartz (2003) showing
that perceived parenting (affectionate parenting) is directly linked to the accuracy
of perception of parents values. However,
analysis of an alternative model directly
linking mother-constructed and adolescentconstructed future orientation showed an
unacceptable goodness of fit of the empirical
models.
Whether the direct effect found by Knafo
and Schwartz and by Seginer and Mahajna
relates to the nature of the independent (parental beliefs in the Seginer and Mahajna study)
and dependent variables (perceived accuracy of
values in the Knafo and Schwartz study) or the
religious-cultural characteristics of the respondents (Israeli Muslim adolescent girls in the
Seginer and Mahajna study) or both can be
tested only in subsequent research. At present,
more studies support the mediating role of the
self than support its omission.
The generality of the three-component
future orientation model. A basic premise of
future orientation research has been that future
thinking is both universal and specific. Thus,
while age, sex, culture, and social and economic
conditions may influence the content of future
thinking, the hopes versus fears ratio, and the
relations between future orientation and its
antecedents and outcomes, it has been postulated that the structure of future orientation is
relatively consistent (Seginer, 2009). Our
earlier research supported the generality of the
future orientation model for adolescents of different age groups, sex, culture, and ethnicity.
Specifically, it showed that although the
effect of the interpersonal antecedents and selfrepresentation mediators on future orientation,
and the effect of future orientation on developmental outcomes may vary by age, sex, cultural
setting, and future life domain, the structure of
the future orientation and the nature of the
empirical indicators of each component (latent
variable) remain consistent. However, while
our earlier analyses were carried out on adolescents and emerging adults, the present study
shows that the future orientation model applies
also to adults. Nonetheless, in light of the limitations of this study, listed next, this conclusion
should be presently treated with caution and
calls for continued research.
319
References
Present limitations and future directions.
The limitations we list here pertain to the
design of this study as well as to the interpretation of findings on parental effects. Four issues
relate to the design: (a) Sample size did not
allow us to estimate the model for girls and
boys separately, and include parenting variables; (b) the cross-sectional (instead of longitudinal) design prevented us from assessing the
effect of children on mothers across time; (c)
sample characteristics limit our conclusions
to a limited group of adolescents; and (d) to
mothers only. Consequently, future research
should aim to include a larger sample of
respondents from a diversified social background, and enlist the participation of fathers as
well as of mothers.
The other limitation pertains to the interpretation of the findings in terms of family processes. As suggested by earlier research on the
effect of parents on adolescents (Roest, Dubas,
Gerris, & Engels, 2009; Seginer & Vermulst,
2000), at least part of what might be interpreted
as indicating the effect of parents on children
emanates from the culture they share, or their
cultural stereotype (Roest et al., 2009). In our
study the effect of such a cultural stereotype
may be indicated by the correlations between
mothers and adolescents for the two adult life
domains.
Specifically, although marriage and family
belong to the distant future for our participants
(the median age of marriage for the Jewish
population is 25.4 years and 27.7 years for
women and men, respectively (Israel Central
Statistical Bureau, 2011), the similarity between
future orientation regarding marriage and
family as a consensual issue in Jewish society is
somewhat higher than for work and career.
Thus, following Roest et al. (2009), future
research should also examine the cultural
320
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