Abstract
Adolescents value the idea of purposeful careers and gain numerous benefits from exploring career purpose options early in their education. However, most families and educational systems would benefit from a deeper understanding of adolescent career purpose exploration. Through qualitative interviews and thematic analysis, this exploratory study uncovers important factors for supporting early exploration of career purpose. A socioeconomically diverse group of high school sophomores (N = 45; Mage = 15.6) identified significant factors that helped them explore early career purpose interests. Findings suggest the importance of: (1) new, fun, and/or meaningful experiences to inspire and further the exploration of purposeful work, (2) authentic connections with others, especially parents, for needed social support, and (3) key psychological strengths including prosocial behavior, identity and future self development, and resilience in the face of life pressures. These exploratory findings offer insights to guide school- and family-based interventions aimed at strengthening adolescent career purpose exploration. Further studies will benefit adolescents by improving career purpose exploration processes and assisting adolescents in building a future that includes a career purpose in life.
Introduction
Adolescent career purpose is an important topic of study because, while not actively pursuing a career, adolescents are formulating work goals, constructing concepts of their future self, identifying areas of meaning, and making educational choices that could affect future work goals (Carey, 2022; de Kraker-Pauw et al., 2022; Ratner et al., 2024; Zhou, 2024). Career purpose exploration can also assist with identity development, a critical developmental task of adolescence (Blattner et al., 2013; Damon, 2008; Erikson, 1968; Lincoln et al., 2025; Malin et al., 2017). Additionally, exploring purposeful careers during adolescence offers significant benefits, including improved academic achievement, enhanced well-being, a sense of direction, self-efficacy, and the potential for meaningful future work that contributes to society (Dik et al., 2015; Liang, White, Rhodes, et al., 2017; Lincoln et al., 2025). Despite the importance of a career purpose in life, it is surprising how little emphasis the topic receives in high school settings (Zhou, 2024). The goal of this study is to uncover key entry points that support adolescent exploration of career purpose in life, enabling them to look beyond a job title and explore a path toward work that both benefits their community and is personally meaningful.
Adolescent Career Purpose Defined
There are several definitions researchers and practitioners use when describing the concept of purpose. Some factors, such as meaning, are included in most definitions, while others, such as a beyond-the-self orientation, are included in a subset of purpose definitions (Damon, 2025). This study utilizes a three-part definition of purpose in life, which includes (1) the pursuit of meaningful goals, (2) sustained and long-term engagement, and (3) contributing to the well-being of others (Damon, 2025).
Purpose in life can take many forms (Damon & Colby, 2022) and can be found in civic, artistic, family, spiritual, and community service domains (Malin et al., 2017). Additionally, a recent Gallup Poll revealed that four of five adolescents reported the desire for a career that aligns with their purpose in life (Gallup Poll & Bates College, 2024). Whatever form it takes, youth purpose development is important, and research indicates it takes perseverance and extensive time to develop, with high school years as a key point in the life span to ignite its development (Damon & Colby, 2022).
In addition to purpose, adolescents benefit from exploring potential career interests early in high school (Zhou, 2024). Developmentally appropriate career-related tasks for adolescents include exploring career interest, narrowing the scope of career options, creating career goals, and making plans for future career-related actions (Kenny et al., 2019; Lau et al., 2021; Skorikov, 2007; Zhou, 2024). Students with vocational or career exploration experience have been found to better understand the connection between learning and career when leaving school (Turner & Lapan, 2002), and high school students receiving career development support exhibit higher levels of well-being and lower rates of problem behaviors (Gore et al., 2003; Skorikov, 2007; Zhou, 2024). Additionally, higher rates of adolescent career adaptability, defined as the ability to cope flexibly with changes in career goals or contexts, have been linked to increased levels of life satisfaction, making career exploration a resource to increase adolescent well-being (Ginevra et al., 2016).
Adolescent purpose and career exploration together inform the concept of career purpose, defined as a personally meaningful career interest involving a long-term commitment that benefits others (Bronk & Finch, 2010; Dik et al., 2011). Career purpose enables youth to consider a career path that is personally meaningful and allows them to realize their desire to contribute to something larger than themselves (Colby, 2020; Lincoln et al., 2025). It also allows them to take advantage of the many benefits that come with a purpose in life (Bronk et al., 2019; Malin et al., 2017). Researchers have been calling for more effective ways to support youth in meaningful career exploration during the high school years, and career purpose is an important way to answer this call (Colby, 2020; Dik et al., 2015; Lau et al., 2021; Lincoln et al., 2025; Moran, 2019; Zhou, 2024). By focusing on the adolescent perspective, this study aims to increase our understanding of key factors young people report have assisted them to successfully explore their early career purpose interests.
Potential Factors Supporting the Search for Career Purpose in Life
Previous research on adolescent purpose and career development points to several important factors likely to support career purpose exploration. First, is the importance of context. Purpose development relies heavily on the contextual factors surrounding an adolescent and the bidirectional relationship of these factors described by Relational Developmental Systems theory (Lerner & Lerner, 2019; Malin et al., 2017). Using the Relational Developmental Systems lens, human development is seen as flexible and dynamic, and an individual’s context – including environment, people, and opportunities – plays a role in shaping their developmental path (Lerner, 2018). Over time, youth shape and are shaped by their contextual environments (Lerner & Lerner, 2019). This bidirectionality influences the experiences they have, the people they meet, and the challenges they face (Bell, 2019; Lerner & Konowitz, 2016; Lerner & Lerner, 2019).
The second important factor is social support, which includes people whom adolescents perceive engage with them in a meaningful or authentic way, through providing assistance, empathy, or feedback (Bronk et al., 2009; D’Amico, 2025; Heng et al., 2020; Tsai & Cheng, 2023; White et al., 2021). In the career purpose context, this support for meaningful career exploration is often given by parents or other extended family members who provide a safe place for reflection, day-to-day guidance, and motivation for their adolescents to work toward future goals (Carey, 2022; D’Amico, 2025; Zhou, 2024).
A third important factor is prosocial motivation, with youth often expressing a desire to help others in their future (D’Amico, 2025; Liang, White, Mousseau, et al., 2017; Lincoln et al., 2025). This desire is core to career purpose development as youth explore ways to contribute in a meaningful way (Colby, 2020). A prosocial orientation can take root in early adolescence as youth show interest in contributing toward social issues such as reducing homelessness, preventing bullying, or supporting family members (Malin et al., 2017). Additionally, prosocial activities can increase adolescent wellbeing and feelings of meaning, which can further career purpose development (Klein, 2017; Malin et al., 2017; Padilla-Walker et al., 2020). Finally, prosocial thoughts and behaviors can be critical to driving the motivation that enables youth to persevere and overcome challenges as they work toward a career purpose goal (Lincoln et al., 2025).
The Current Study
While much research has been done on both adolescent purpose in life and career development, fewer studies have focused on what young people view as critical to their own career purpose exploration. Understanding these factors from the adolescent perspective is essential as their viewpoints directly influence their lived experience (Blattner et al., 2013; Kho et al., 2022). This paper explores the research question: What are key factors that youth find support the exploration and development of their career purpose interests during the early years of high school? The data in this study were approved by the Institutional Review Board at Claremont Graduate University (4090) and are from the first year of a 6-year longitudinal, cross-cultural study on career purpose development for youth in the United States and Taiwan.
Methods
Study Design
This study utilized qualitative research methods to learn more about the factors young people found to be helpful as they explored their interests in a career-oriented purpose in life.
Participants and Procedures
We employed a criterion-based, purposive sampling strategy (Miles & Huberman, 1994), with the criteria for participant selection including: (1) being a sophomore or 10th-grade student, (2) enrolled in high school in the western region of the United States, and (3) proficient in English. To gain a broad understanding of factors adolescents found important in the exploration of their career purpose in life, a maximum variation sample was used (Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Maxwell, 2013). The sample size was chosen to ensure data saturation during the qualitative interview process (Creswell & Poth, 2024). Participants were recruited through visits to school PTA and Foundation meetings, positive youth associations, and direct contact with school staff. These efforts resulted in a sample of youth (N = 45; M age = 15.6 years; SD = 0.52 years) who reported their ethnicity as 63% White, 15% Asian, 13% Mixed Ethnicity, 5% Middle Eastern, 2% Hispanic, and 2% Other. Most participants resided in the state of California. The sample was socioeconomically diverse as identified through parent occupations that included white- and blue-collar workers, social workers, lifeguards, nurses, college professors, and full-time parents. Several parents were unemployed, first-generation US citizens, or deported and parenting from another country.
Prior to commencing with interviews, parent consent and student assent forms were completed, and researchers within the Adolescent Moral Lab, located at Claremont Graduate University, attended several training sessions to prepare for the qualitative interviews. These researchers, all actively studying adolescent purpose development, were trained in understanding the goals of the protocol and qualitative interview techniques. They also conducted mock interviews prior to interviewing study participants. The interview data were collected in 2021 through Zoom and telephone-call interviews, both of which have been found to be effective methods for conducting qualitative interviews (Abedi, 2025; Vogl, 2013). All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and de-identified. Data was analyzed using Dedoose software and stored in secure, password-protected files. The youth were provided a $20 Amazon gift card after the completion of the interview process.
Youth Career Purpose Interview Protocol
A semi-structured interview protocol, the Youth Career Purpose Interview (Appendix 1), was used. This protocol is based on the Revised Youth Purpose Interview Protocol (Andrews et al., 2006) that has been widely used in previous studies to examine sources and the presence of purpose among adolescents and young adults (Bronk et al., 2018; Damon, 2008; Moran et al., 2013). The interviews, lasting an average of 55 min, explored the three dimensions of purpose, including meaningful goals, long-term commitment, and beyond the self orientation, with a focus on career interests. Questions focused on the participant’s most important career interests and goals: “What do you see yourself doing when you grow up?” and “What kinds of experiences do you need to have to prepare yourself for this career?” Next were questions addressing why these intentions were meaningful and where the youth found related support: “Why do you think this is something you care so deeply about?,” “Are you doing anything today to make progress toward this aim?,” and “Are there other supports you wish you had received?” Finally, questions were asked about career exploration, parental influences, and their understanding of purpose: “Are there particular resources you access when you consider careers?” and “What do they [parents] say most often about their own work life?” and “What does it mean to you to lead a life of purpose?” Throughout the process, interviewers maintained an open and non-judgmental approach, with questions phrased to communicate that all responses were equally acceptable (Bergen & Labonté, 2020).
Data Analysis
Thematic analysis was used to maximize the identification of themes across participants while still valuing each individual participant (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The process involved continual written memos to identify, analyze, and report patterns found within the data set (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The goal throughout was to gain insight into the key factors the adolescents in this study identified as helpful in their exploration of a future career purpose in life.
All researchers began by reading the same five interviews and collaboratively discussing key findings to initiate development of the study codebook, which included codes clustered around the topics of support systems, career exploration, challenges, new experiences, identity formation, and the desire to help others. As additional transcripts were reviewed, the codebook expanded to include over 50 codes. Once finalized, all transcripts were re-read using the completed codebook. A desire to help others, parents, challenges youth face, and ways of exploring careers were the most utilized codes.
To assess inter-coder reliability, three researchers independently coded 10% of the interviews exerts selected through a random number generator. This process was conducted twice, yielding Cohen’s Kappa coefficients of κ = 0.81 and 0.86, indicating high inter-rater agreement (McHugh, 2012). The team then proceeded to code the remaining interviews, generating analytic memos throughout. All coded experts were re-read, and the team met regularly to confirm emerging themes, based on both the memos and prevalence counts. This iterative process ensured that the themes accurately reflected participants’ experiences (Braun & Clarke, 2023). Themes were refined through team discussion until full consensus was reached on a final set of themes that best represented the data in relation to the study’s research questions.
To provide insight into the prevalence of the findings, indicators can be found within the qualitative Results section that highlight theme occurrences. They are “most” (e.g., noted by 75%–100% of participants), “many” (e.g., noted by 50%–74.99% of participants), “some” (e.g., noted by 25%–49.99% of participants), and “few” (e.g., noted by 0%–24.99% of participants). Exemplary quotes used throughout this paper illustrate each theme (Creswell & Poth, 2024).
Qualitative research is shaped by the lens through which it is analyzed, and positionality statements provide the reader with insight into the background of a researcher; thus, they can be important (Lund et al., 2025). This study analysis and write-up was conducted by three middle-class white women ranging in age from 30 to 61 years in age. Two worked in helping professions, with the third working in academic research institutions. Interviews were conducted by a team of researchers who differed on the traits of age, gender, and ethnicity. All worked together within a graduate research lab in southern California focused on adolescent purpose development.
Results
Three themes were identified as being the most important entry points for adolescent career purpose exploration. Each is explored below.
Meaningful, Fun, and Future-Oriented Experiences Further the Exploration
For most of the participants in this study, fun and novel experiences served as a catalyst for the early exploration of a career purpose in life. These experiences furthered career purpose by opening possibilities for future purposeful work, providing adolescents with hopeful feelings, and helping them find opportunities to make a difference in the world.
Novel experiences allowed the adolescents to gain exposure to something new, and that, coupled with reflection, helped them learn more about themselves and their world. To do this, adolescents needed to shift from their normal routines and stretch into a new experience. A young man exploring a variety of careers, from sports journalism to financial management, explained his process as follows: I think it is kind of getting some exposure to everything. That’s something that my parents really emphasized a lot growing up, and they still do it today. Whenever I’m thinking about doing something . . . [they say] just kind of try it out and get some exposure to it. I think that’s what will prepare me . . . [I can] just kind of try these things out.
His reflections underscore the value of new experiences in discovering meaningful pursuits, often a crucial first step toward exploring a career purpose in life. This step can be challenging for adolescents, as it may include stress, social discomfort, or the risk of failure (Malin et al., 2017). Several adolescents spoke about this challenge, as reflected by one young man: [My dad] encourages me to take every possible opportunity and everything, even if that means like taking a risk . . . even if you fail or like don’t get accepted or something, like, he wants me to try, and I think that is definitely very helpful.
Many of the youth saw risk in trying new things, but they also believed it offered them new insight, helped them make new friends, or could become a fun addition to their lives.
New and fun experiences opened possibilities that often included unexpected areas of personal meaning. To build career purpose, many adolescents were actively reflecting to better understand their interests and what they found meaningful through favorite classes, preferred types of homework, interesting clubs, and after-school programs. They appreciated that the possibilities for personally meaningful experiences expanded as they got older, including for one 15-year-old who wanted to attend a summer sustainability program and volunteer at an area museum, both of which required her to be 16. Waiting for meaningful experiences was a common occurrence, as some adolescents were already exploring their career purpose interests in middle school (at age 11).
New experiences could lead to changes in the meaningfulness of a chosen future career purpose. For example, when asked about her commitment to marine biology, one 15-year-old explained: “There is a bit of hesitancy just because I've seen like how fast my interests change. Like just a year ago I was into kinesiology, like, that [was] the thing for me, I was researching schools of osteopathic medicine.” Changes in meaningful interests were a common part of exploring career purpose for the participants. Many jumped into their current area of interest only to change direction later with equal enthusiasm about a very different, meaningful possibility. Most participants were comfortable with their career choices shifting from one option to another.
Career purpose was also furthered by new experiences that provided adolescents with hopeful feelings about their future possibilities. For some, hopeful feelings about their future could be found everywhere, as highlighted by this female participant, “I love just experiencing, just people watching or seeing communities and businesses running, and it just makes me feel hopeful.” Overall, many of the participants had hopeful future dreams about making a difference in the world, as with this young woman: My education really matters to me, and I hope to, hopefully, when I grow up, I'm able to make opportunities for younger people so that they can also get great educations. I've grown up low-income and so the schools that I've gone to, elementary schools, they didn't have the best resources . . . I definitely wanna do things to help make it better.
Many of the youth were excited to find work that made a difference for others, and they connected that with their hope for a career purpose in the future.
New experiences were found through friends, family members, or occasionally a teacher. Many also found experiences through social media and online resources such as TikTok and YouTube. One young woman interested in pharmaceutical work spoke about online resources helping her: I’ve been using some social media . . . I’ve seen people handle prescriptions of pills and . . . I’ve seen quite a [lot] of people like say, counting pills is pretty stressful because you have to make sure you give the right amount, and if you give too less or too much . . . you’d be responsible for their health and what happens to them.
For this participant and many others, social media was an easy and accessible way to explore new information about career interests. The youth also mentioned these platforms were particularly helpful in learning more about the day-to-day realities of a possible career and led them to consider it more deeply.
Adolescents Drew Upon Authentic Connection with Others to Build Social Support
For many adolescents in this study, authentic social support, most notably from their parents, played a critical role in their exploration of career purpose. When asked why parents were chosen for career-oriented conversations, one youth said it was because they knew her so well, making them the best people to turn to. One young woman who wanted to pursue acting said this about talking with her mom, “[it] feels really nice, especially because my mom believes in me more than I do. So, like she's definitely always there to help me and encourage me to go to do something if I'm feeling too nervous for it.” This youth was not alone. For many of the youth exploring career purpose options, parents were the most common people they confided in to build courage, face a challenge, reflect, and deepen self-understanding. Those who could not speak with parents, due to relationship issues or physical distance, found this to be challenging. Fortunately, most youth in the study did have access to their parents, and most described their parents as supportive of their career purpose decisions.
While teachers, friends, extended family, and other adults offered support, their influence on career purpose exploration for the adolescent was generally less pronounced. Nonetheless, broader social connections with these groups contributed meaningfully to the adolescents’ overall sense of support and belonging. General social support came from many sources, and most adolescents emphasized the general importance of friendships for their overall wellbeing – highlighting the joy of shared experiences and the comfort of supporting one another through life’s ups and downs. School programs and career counselors were helpful for a few of the youth in this study, but for most, due to time restrictions, they did little to contribute toward career purpose exploration. They instead focused on class selection and college applications.
A safe space for reflection was an important aspect of these authentic connections to others. Participants used reflection to help with career purpose exploration by considering lessons learned, clarifying their wants, expanding their exploration, and identifying personal strengths. A good example of the positive impact social support had on the reflection process came from a young woman whose mother was in the medical field: So before, I wasn’t very sure of what to do, and after talking about it with my parents . . . I’ve gotten to understand a bit more about medical stuff, and I think that being able to help my community or just help patients in general really helped me feel better about myself and allows me to understand more about who I really am.
Reflection with others added to personal insight and proved to be critical to the early exploration of career purpose, as the participants were striving to find a career with meaning.
Social connection also played an important role in encouraging youth to explore new experiences. Enjoyable moments with teachers, friends, relatives, and parents anchored participants to personally meaningful activities, and, in some cases, sparked interest or uncovered a hidden talent as it did for this young man: I played football at the junior high, and then the wrestling coach came out after my first season and said, "Hey, football and wrestling they kinda go together. One will help the other. . . And my friends were doing it, and they convinced other friends to do it, so kind of the whole friend group joined. And I just [chuckle] I took to it, and I was really, really good at it.
He went on to compete at the state level in wrestling, and the experience indirectly influenced his career exploration process by building his confidence and self-efficacy. For this youth and others, time to hang out with their friends was why they joined a new activity that later became very important to them or pointed them toward exploring a specific career purpose.
Sharing a common goal with peers or friends was another value of general social support in the career purpose exploration process. One young woman, for example, discovered a passion for helping others through journalism and described how being part of the school newspaper and the people there brought her a deep sense of joy and belonging: I think a big part of it is the team, knowing that I work with a bunch of other girls and that they’re writing these articles too, and we can just have a common goal together and achieve that. And it’s just like a really fun environment.
Social engagement played a crucial role in connecting these adolescents to activities that could lead to a future career purpose.
Psychological Strengths Related to Development of Self and Others Shape the Process
Participants spoke about the importance of many psychological strengths as they explored their career purpose interests, with three as most prevalent in their exploration of career purpose interests. They were a (1) prosocial orientation, (2) identity and future self development, and (3) resilience in the face of life pressures. Each is explained in more detail below.
Prosocial Orientation
Many of the adolescents in this study were passionate about work that would help others, but they were often unsure about how to make this a reality. However, this desire provided them with motivation to work toward a purposeful career. They spoke about wanting to make a difference for others, have a positive impact on the world, give back to their community, empower others, become a future role model for younger people, make others’ days better, and build strong positive relationships. For some adolescents, this desire had been with them since they were quite young, as was true for one young woman with a passion to help the unhoused population, saying: This has been something I’ve cared and thought about since I was in elementary, since I was five or something. ‘Cause just like driving through downtown or something, if I see someone who needs food or doesn’t have a home, I’ve always cared about it and I’ve always thought about what can I do.
Participants recognized that many people are in need and believed their future work could contribute to meeting those needs. This desire to help seemed to be rooted in empathy and the personal fulfillment that helping others brought. It led to them feeling happier and more hopeful about the potential of their future and the positive impact they could make. Additionally, their motivation stemmed from a sense of responsibility to give back, a belief in mutual support, and a desire to leave a positive impact on the world.
Many participants felt that helping others was what their parents or larger family members modeled for them as they were growing up, and some spoke specifically about their mothers as a role model. For example, when one young woman was asked about how she became focused on caring for others, she shared: I think it was a very just slow thing that happened. Definitely, when I was little, I was more passive and stuff like that, but I think the people surrounding me and stuff just showed me their values and stuff. For example, my mom . . . but I think I started making them [these values] my own probably in my teenage years or middle school.
As 15-year-olds, many participants were still uncertain about how to build a career that helped others or made a positive impact on the world. However, they benefited from the psychological strength of a prosocial orientation in two ways. First, it provided them with insight and a path toward meaningful future work. Second, experiencing the hope associated with the future impact they could have on the world seemed to provide them with added motivation to continue striving for a purposeful career.
Identity and Future Self Development
Most of the adolescents recognized that there were multiple career options that could lead to building a meaningful work life and a purposeful career. Alongside this awareness, they also considered who they wanted to be in the work world and the lifestyle implications associated with pursuing a particular career path. For these youth, their career purpose exploration seemed to evolve in parallel with the psychological strength that comes through their identity development and desires for their future.
Participants actively considered their future lives as they thought about high school classes, jobs, and college. As high school sophomores, they reflected on their options, some more than others, as a few expressed that they did not want to think about their futures until after high school was over. However, for many of the youth in this study, choosing their career path seemed to be one important factor in the formation of their identity and how they saw themselves in the larger world.
This work was not always easy. One young man, who lost his father early in life and felt responsible for eventually financially supporting his family, described how, back in middle school, uncertainty around his future career was uncomfortable and stressful. To alleviate this stress, when he was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up, he fabricated answers and randomly chose career options until he found one, becoming an engineer, that seemed to please the adults around him. When asked about his future, he stuck with that answer for a few years to avoid further discomfort. A few others spoke about feeling driven to know what work they wanted to do when they were “still a kid,” and they devoted time to figuring it out. As one young woman said, “I went back and forth all the time, but then around eight grade . . . I was like ‘I really feel like I love the field of psychology.” In both cases, the uncertainty was challenging, but once a direction was found, the stress was a bit resolved, and they could explore the ways that a specific career choice fit their forming identity.
Another facet of identity development, desires for their future self, also played an important role in shaping career purpose exploration. Participants saw career choices interwoven with their future lifestyle. This is referred to as the “condition domain” in the future orientation framework (Carey, 2022). As these youth considered their postsecondary future selves, three condition domain desires emerged. The first and most frequently expressed future condition domain was for stability at home and in their financial lives. Many adolescents emphasized the importance of finding a career purpose that also allowed them to support themselves as adults. This hope for their future had a strong influence on their career purpose exploration. As a result, some chose to step away from pursuing a career purpose in less stable or lower-paying fields, such as theater, digital arts, writing, or visual art. One young woman, for example, was grappling with this tension as she reflected on her passion for art: So I think I am moving away from that at the moment. I don’t know, I think just getting started is gonna be really hard. If I get out of college with a major in art . . . where do I go from there? What am I supposed to do?
Many spoke about pursuing more creative interests as hobbies and securing more stable jobs that they hoped could become meaningful and benefit others in some way.
The second most frequently expressed future condition domain was the desire to have children and a family of their own, as well as to care for extended family members. This aspiration was often closely tied to their broader goal of future life stability. When asked what she wanted her life to be like 25 years into the future, one youth said: That's interesting. That's where my parents are now, so I'm just thinking. I think definitely family's going to be the most important, no matter what age. And I think it'll be kinda, I'll get to a point where I'm helping my kids figure out what they want to do and their purpose in life.
While career purpose exploration was very important, for many participants, current and future family members were seen as an important priority and a meaningful purpose in their lives. Many of the youth knew they and their siblings were a big part of their parents’ purpose in life; they were growing up with an example of family as a purpose in life, and they wanted that in their future lives as well.
A third important future condition domain was the desire for freedom and flexibility, and the participants considered how certain career paths might affect both. They were interested in things like starting their own businesses, traveling, working remotely, and having the flexibility to change their career or purpose throughout the course of their life. One young man who felt family was very important but did not yet have a career interest stated he wanted “freedom for me to do what I want, but also [to] have an end goal to achieve.” The youth in this study were looking at their career purpose exploration as a part of who they were within the context of their future lives as a whole.
Resilience in the Face of Life Pressures
Most of the youth spoke about personal, family, or social pressures they faced and ways these pressures impacted their career purpose exploration. Many of the adolescents described feeling intense pressure to succeed personally while also making a meaningful impact on the world. They spoke about expectations to get into a good college, secure a well-paying job, earn high grades, make their parents proud, and even solve major global issues like climate change. One young man reflected, “A lot of my friends, if they don’t get straight A’s, their parents get very mad at them, and I’m lucky enough to have parents who are okay with me not being perfect.” A few participants felt pressure to succeed so they would not disappoint others, while a few spoke about pressures from family members to pursue high-paying careers, regardless of their actual personal interest.
Some adolescents shared how they managed the pressure they felt – through strategies like getting more sleep, exercising, having fun with peers, or connecting with friends for support. One young man’s mother was deported when he was younger. This influenced his aspiration to become an immigration lawyer, and he described how he intentionally shifted his focus away from academic stress, “right now the most important thing to me is staying happy. I have been focusing too much on grades and academics, and now that is why I’m struggling. . . happiness is one of the biggest things I’m thinking of right now.” For him, prioritizing moments of happiness became a necessary way to ease the burden of pressure and protect his well-being.
Mental health issues were another pressure some adolescents felt could impact their career purpose exploration. They spoke of facing depression, anxiety, lack of self-confidence, negative self-talk, comparing themselves to others, and standing up to demanding or demoralizing athletic coaches for student athletes. One participant spoke about her mental health issues, saying, “it's something that kind of comes and goes. So, I definitely see that as, like, being an obstacle in the future.” Participants spoke about ways they managed mental health challenges, which included therapy, family support, peer support, personal reflection, maintaining a positive mindset, taking time for themselves, and balancing school and life demands.
Self-pressure, worries of the future, and perfectionism were added pressures that were mentioned by some. To manage these challenges, participants spoke about needing to know themselves well enough to protect themselves, mindfully reflect on the situation, and make future plans. One young woman looking forward to a career in anesthesiology put it this way, “If I didn't really have the plan to do it [anesthesiology], then I don't know, I'd probably be stressed all time and. . . I like to look forward into the future, so I have something to look forward to.” Another participant explained that the act of just making these plans helped to reduce her stress. Even if these plans totally changed for a new set of plans, the act of planning was a coping method for some of the youth in the study and helped them to be more resilient in the face of these pressures. For these adolescents, life pressures came in many forms, and developing resilience through the coping mechanisms listed above enabled them to continue exploring possible areas of career purpose.
Discussion
The goal of this exploratory study was to better understand adolescents’ perspectives on the factors supporting their career purpose exploration. Our findings identify the importance of three entry points into adolescents’ early career purpose exploration. They are: (1) new, fun, and meaningful experiences, (2) authentic connections with others to build needed social support, and (3) psychological strengths related to the development of self and others.
As with past studies on purpose in life, the adolescents in this study consistently emphasized the importance of new, fun, and meaningful experiences in helping them clarify their career purposeful interests (Burrow et al., 2022; Damon et al., 2015; White et al., 2021). Additionally, experiences were most impactful when accompanied by meaningful social support from parents, teachers, and mentors, providing safe spaces for reflection (D’Amico, 2025; White et al., 2021) or as experiential learning opportunities paired with social scaffolding to enhance identity and purpose exploration (Blattner et al., 2013; Damon, 2008; Lincoln et al., 2025).
Supported by past research, the current study deepens our understanding of the importance of social support and highlights the adolescent need for authentic connection (D’Amico, 2025; White et al., 2021). Parents were identified as key to exploring future career purpose interests (Carey, 2022; D’Amico, 2025). Many of the study participants felt their parents provided an intimate connection, and they described them as the people who knew them the best. Parents championed the participant’s vision for the future as much as the participants themselves, helped with reflection on past experiences, and could be highly encouraging through inevitable challenges. Friends were also important parts of the adolescent’s social support system (Colby, 2020; Malin et al., 2014). Overall, social support through authentic connections seemed to strengthen youth’s positive view of their future selves, which appeared to increase motivation for continued exploration and create a positive cascade for the participants. These findings stress the importance parents, mentors, and teachers play in building authentic relationships with adolescents throughout their high school years.
For some adolescents, social influences introduced complexity as they described navigating tensions between personal interests, future lifestyle preferences, and external expectations, particularly from family members. This dynamic is consistent with theories of identity development that emphasize the adolescent period as a time of negotiation between individual autonomy and social roles (Erikson, 1968; Oyserman & James, 2011). Current findings underscore the need for purpose interventions that help youth reflect critically on their unique motivations, disentangle external pressures from their internal values, and make choices aligned with their evolving identity.
The importance of psychological strengths has been noted in past research on adolescent purpose development, specifically highlighting gratitude, compassion, values, and grit (Bronk et al., 2019; Malin et al., 2017). The current study highlights three strengths that seem to target the exploration of career purpose. The first is a prosocial orientation. An environment that models prosocial behaviors seemed to motivate youth to continue their career purpose exploration (Malin et al., 2017). Parents, teachers, and school administrators are recommended to increase opportunities for youth to act on their prosocial tendencies in areas they find interesting. Opportunities could be created through service learning, volunteer opportunities, or mentoring younger students (Colby, 2020; Lincoln et al., 2025).
The second psychological strength supporting career purpose development is identity and future self-development. Career purpose exploration was found to aid in identity exploration by allowing participants to consider work, lifestyle, and impact on others as key aspects of who they wanted to become. As with past studies, reflecting on personal identity and a future life after high school was important to building hopeful feelings about a future career purpose (Carey, 2022). Development in this area seemed to motivate youth to continue exploring interests and new experiences.
Resilience in the face of life pressures was the third psychological strength found to be important in career purpose exploration. Past research on resilience and purpose in life finds there is a correlation, with the possibility of a bidirectional influence, between the two factors (Malin et al., 2019). The current study adds additional details by highlighting specific pressures such as school performance, mental health issues, and perfectionism. This study also identifies specific ways participants drew upon their resilience, such as building self-understanding, rest, exercise, time with friends, and the relief found in making future plans. Given these findings, parents and those working with adolescents can support adolescents’ efforts at self-care and increase career purpose exploration through supporting planning efforts that enable the youth to consider their identity, career purpose, future lifestyle, and impact on the larger world. The adolescents in this study were very comfortable with their plans evolving over time, meaning the benefit seems to come from the planning process rather than the final product. Adults can stress that a goal be identified as a possible career purpose and build an initial plan around that early goal to increase feelings of future hope and stability. Communicating that the plan will likely change over time will allow adolescents to move freely from goal to goal as needed, with the tentative plan there to build motivation and hope as the adolescent continues their search.
Finally, given the average age of participants (15.6 years), this study reinforces the view that mid-adolescence is a particularly sensitive period for career purpose exploration (Bronk, 2014; Malin et al., 2017). During this stage, adolescents are forming core aspects of identity, seeking meaning, and becoming increasingly autonomous (Eccles et al., 1993; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). As a result, they may be especially receptive to supportive guidance around career purpose exploration. Investing in interventions during this period, whether through school-based curriculum, mentorship programs, parent education programs, or community engagement, may have a disproportionately positive impact on the development of long-term career purpose. Notably, within this study, the timing of career purpose exploration varied considerably across participants. Some began contemplating meaningful careers in early adolescence, while others reported the desire to delay serious consideration until college or beyond. This variability supports the notion that career purpose development follows an individualized trajectory and may be influenced by developmental readiness, access to opportunities, and the availability of supportive guidance (Hill et al., 2010). These findings suggest a single intervention point is unlikely to meet the needs of all adolescents. Instead, it is recommended that educators and program designers consider a frequent and flexible universal approach to supporting career purpose exploration beginning in the earliest years of adolescence.
Policy and Practice Implications
Findings from the current study call for a coordinated effort among school staff, families, and educational policy makers to support adolescent career purpose exploration. First, educators can offer experiential learning opportunities to increase adolescent exposure to diverse activities, careers, and civic engagement. Prior research emphasizes the importance of these experiential learning contexts, as they can foster purpose exploration by allowing youth to apply personal interests to the real world (Damon et al., 2015; Malin et al., 2017). Schools can support this process by integrating career exploration opportunities into courses, creating partnerships with community organizations, and encouraging club participation, service-learning projects, or mentorship. Most importantly, these opportunities should include structured reflection activities that help students interpret what they learned from these experiences and how they can connect them to future hopes and goals.
Second, educational institutions can strengthen the development of authentic social support by training teachers, parents, and school administrative staff on the importance of building meaningful connections with students. Schools could also create mentorship opportunities with community partners, strengthening the student/advisor relationship so students have an opportunity to regularly discuss future goals on campus. By teaching families the importance of including career purpose conversations as a part of normal family discourse, schools can help increase the depth of conversations on this topic between adolescents and their parents.
Third, this study’s findings stress the importance of cultivating psychological strengths that support career purpose exploration, including prosocial motivation, identity development, future self exploration, and resilience. Schools and policymakers can support the development of these strengths by incorporating service-learning opportunities, civic engagement projects, and meaningful discussions of societal issues. These types of engagement may help students better understand who they are, what they want for their future, ways they can contribute, and strategies to overcome the normal challenges associated with transitioning from school into work contexts (Colby, 2020; Malin et al., 2017).
Finally, educators and policymakers should recognize that career purpose development is a gradual and individualized process that unfolds across adolescence. Participants in the present study demonstrated varying levels of readiness to consider future careers, suggesting that a one-size-fits-all timeline for career decision-making may not align with adolescents’ developmental needs. Educational systems may benefit from creating flexible opportunities for exploration, reflection, and planning across all years of high school. Introducing the idea during the first year of high school and building upon it across subsequent years could support students on their unique career purpose exploration journeys.
Limitations and Strengths
Several limitations of this study should be acknowledged. First, although the sample was intentionally designed to include youth from varied backgrounds, it may disproportionately include exemplar adolescents – those highly interested in their career purpose exploration. This could be assumed given the depth of engagement and reflection found in most of the interviews and the fact that in 5 years of annual data collection, only two participants have left the longitudinal study. Second, this study is close to two-thirds female, and a gender imbalance such as this could be a factor that skews the findings or makes them less relevant for males. Third, as a qualitative study, the exploratory nature of this research limits the generalizability of the findings. However, while limited in generalizability, the depth of discussion resulting from qualitative findings offers a rich understanding and complex interpretation of meaning for the studied phenomenon (Creswell & Poth, 2024). Finally, most of the study participants resided in the state of California, within the United States. Thus, the results from this study may be limited to this geographical location, and more work will be needed to understand how context shapes adolescent career purpose exploration.
While this study has certain limitations, it offers meaningful contributions for those interested in supporting the development of career purposes in adolescents. Its strengths include a strong emphasis on the adolescent perspective, socioeconomic diversity among participants, and a focus specifically on career purpose exploration in early adolescents. Additionally, future research in this area will further our knowledge around the exploration of adolescent career purpose. First, studies should examine whether the themes and findings identified here apply to the broader adolescent population. Second, future research should investigate methods for increasing authenticity in social support systems and building psychological strengths related to youth career purpose exploration. Third, research should investigate how to increase career purpose exploration across diverse cultural and contextual settings. Moreover, the study of career purpose interventions is needed to understand the best ways to facilitate career purpose exploration for adolescents. Longitudinal studies are also needed to track how early efforts toward developing career purpose shape future educational and occupational outcomes. Finally, future research should explore how integrating these factors into educational curricula impacts not only individual students but also broader school communities.
Conclusion
During the interviews, many adolescents shared that although they frequently thought about pursuing meaningful careers that could positively impact the world, the research interview was often the first time they had spoken much about it. Their reflections highlight the value of initiating these discussions early and intentionally. Youth are ready for authentic conversations about their future career purpose, conversations that will allow them to access the many benefits associated with purpose development (Bronk et al., 2009; Burrow et al., 2010; Burrow & Hill, 2011; Malin et al., 2015). The findings in this study can both inspire and guide those who are in a place to lead such conversations.
Footnotes
Appendix 1
Career Purpose Interview Protocol: Year 1
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk and Dr. Yu-Chen Wang for their invaluable guidance and support. We are also grateful to the members of the Adolescent Moral Development Lab and the adolescents and their parents, whose commitment to this study made this work possible.
Ethical Considerations
The full study was approved by the Claremont University Institutional Review Board (4090).
Consent to Participate
All of the participants included in this study completed an assent form, and their parent completed a consent form. These forms are kept in a password-protected file.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study received funding from the National Taiwan Normal University, as data were gathered as a part of a longitudinal, cross-cultural study between National Taiwan Normal University and Claremont Graduate University.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data Availability Statement
Data available from the authors upon request.