A growing body of research indicates that focusing attention and effort on meaningful life goals is associated with significant benefits for youth development and well-being (Davids et al., 2017; Massey et al., 2008; Messersmith et al., 2010). This meta-analytic study aims to examine the strength, direction, and potential moderators of the association between goal orientation and well-being. Goal orientation refers to an active cognitive and motivational focus on future goals and possible courses of action, and we focus on two dimensions: goal process appraisals and goal content. For the present study, well-being refers to feeling good about one’s life and adequate subjective, psychological, and social functioning.

To synthesize the existing literature, we conducted a systematic search on the Web of Science database, and “Connected Papers” was used to locate articles not captured by database search. Studies were included if they reported on the association between goal orientation and well-being in samples of 12-18-year-old adolescents. We excluded studies that focused on non-adolescent samples and involved participants with various physical health conditions, at-risk youth, or youth undergoing traumatic experiences. We did not include any time restrictions in our search, as, to our knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis to examine this association in studies conducted with adolescent samples. Due to the expected differences in sample characteristics and outcome measures, we will pool data using random effects models, and heterogeneity will be assessed using I² statistics.

We expect that higher levels of goal orientation will be linked to improved well-being among youth. Additionally, we will explore whether the strength of this relationship varies across goal orientation dimensions, goal contents, sample characteristics, and assessment approaches to goal orientation and well-being. Findings from this study will have implications for goal orientation theory and will reveal the applied implications of goal orientation for interventions and practice.

Adolescence is a critical period for psychosocial adjustment and well-being. It is assumed that the availability of social (i.e. parental social and emotional support, authoritative parenting, integration into peer groups, school integration) and personal resources (i.e. empathy and perspective-taking, self-efficacy, self-control, optimism, sense of coherence, self-esteem) is beneficial for healthy development (i.e. better psychosocial adjustment and higher well-being). However, some associations remain ambiguous, particularly of empathy and perspective-taking as well as integration into peer groups with psychosocial adjustment and well-being. As certain combinations of resources may also be relevant in addition to the level of specific resources, the present study examined profiles of resources in adolescents. Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify resource profiles in a sample of 689 adolescents (54 % female; 44 % male, 2 % diverse) aged 11 to 18 years (M = 12.32, SD = 1.60). Three profiles emerged: High-Resources-Parent-Centred (23 %), characterized by high levels of all resources, particularly parental resources; Average-Overall-Resources (67 %), with average levels across all resources; and Low-Resources-Peer-Centred (10 %), characterized by lower overall resources but average levels of empathy and perspective-taking as well as integration into peer groups. These profiles differed in psychosocial adjustment and well-being: Adolescents in the High-Resources-Parent-Centred profile reported the most favourable outcomes, including the lowest internalising and externalising problems, as well as the highest well-being. While adolescents in the Average-Overall-Resources profile had intermediate outcome levels, members of the Low-Resources-Peer-Centred profile showed significantly higher internalising and externalising problems and lower well-being in comparison to the other profiles. The profiles’ reflection of adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment and well-being supports the idea that combinations of resources are relevant. The findings underline that resource profiles in adolescents should be further investigated in future studies to derive new recommendations for interventions, particularly for adolescents with low-resource profiles.

A widely accepted view in developmental psychology holds that as children transition into adolescence, peers replace parents as the primary source of emotional support for school. However, this may not fully capture the experiences of marginalized youth in the Global North, where racial-ethnic minority communities often place strong cultural value on family support. Black adolescents may also experience lower school engagement and weaker school bonding due to feeling othered in educational spaces. Given that both family and peer relationships may be equally influential in Black communities, this study examines how emotional support from these sources interacts to promote school bonding during early adolescence.

This study, part of a larger project on Black adolescents’ social support and school experiences, focuses on how emotional support from family and peers predicts school bonding. Using data from the National Survey of American Life Adolescent Supplement (N = 1,170; Mage = 15, SD = 1.40), we find that the positive impact of peer emotional support on school bonding is strongest when family emotional support is also high. A significant interaction (b = 0.08, t(769) = 2.13, p = .03) indicates that peer emotional support predicts school bonding when family emotional support is high or average but is not significant when family support is low. These findings suggest that while peers are often viewed as the most influential source of support for adolescents, their impact on school bonding is amplified when they also receive emotional support at home.

By examining how different support sources reinforce one another, this study extends existing research on adolescent development and school engagement. Partnerships and programming that strengthen links between both peer and family emotional support systems may be key to promoting success for adolescents in middle school, particularly for those navigating systemic barriers in education.

Although studies examined differences in life satisfaction across adolescence, the influence of school transitions is often neglected. This is especially true for understudied populations, such as adolescents transitioning from pre-vocational to vocational education. This study examined the life satisfaction trajectories in adolescents transitioning to vocational education using data spanning six years before and one year after the school transition. Moreover, this study examined academic motivation, academic performance, school satisfaction, age, and gender as predictors of these trajectories. Heterogenous linear mixed models were applied to a sample comprising 1,747 German adolescents (57% boys, 96% Germany born, Mage_t1 = 12.81). Three trajectories were identified in which most adolescents showed stable and high life satisfaction levels, some showed initial growth, and others temporary decreases. Stability in life satisfaction levels were linked to high levels of school satisfaction. Low levels of academic motivation and academic performance during the middle years of secondary school were associated with fluctuating levels of life satisfaction. No associations were found between trajectory membership, gender, age, and educational program. While most adolescents generally experienced stability, fluctuations were most evident during the middle years of secondary school. Research implications and results will be discussed.