Motivated by future and challenges: A cross-cultural study on adolescents' investment in learning and career planning

• Published in: Journal of vocational behavior Vol. 110; pp. 168 - 185
• Main Authors: Andre, Lucija, Peetsma, Thea T.D., van Vianen, Annelies E.M., Jansen in de Wal, Joost, Petrović, Danijela S., Bunjevac, Tomislav
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Elsevier Inc 01.02.2019; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adolescents; Career development; Career development planning; Career planning; Cross cultural studies; Cross-cultural differences; Cultural differences; Cultural values; Economic history; Future time perspective; Grades (Scholastic); Investment in learning; Investments; Learning; Planning; Regulatory focus; Structural equation modeling; Teachers; Teenagers; Serbia; Netherlands; Croatia; Career planning; Regulatory focus; Future time perspective; Cross-cultural differences; Investment in learning
• ISSN: 0001-8791; 1095-9084
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvb.2018.11.015

This three-wave cross-cultural study tested a cross-cultural model that related adolescents' Regulatory Focus (RF) and Future Time Perspective on School and Professional Career (FTP) to their educational and career behaviors, and explored whether these relationships are equivalent across countries. Specifically, it addressed the challenging question whether adolescents' motivational orientations differ across countries with vastly different cultural values, socio-economic circumstances and history. A total of 1520 adolescents in the Netherlands, Serbia, and Croatia reported their parents' and their own RF (promotion and prevention), FTP on school and professional career, investment in learning and homework, and career planning, on three time points. Teachers assessed adolescents' investment in learning and provided adolescents' GPA. Based on the multi-group structural equation modeling results, we found good model fits for each country and confirmation of most hypotheses. Results supported that the hypothesized model was cross-culturally valid in the three countries, although FTP related differently to GPA and teacher ratings across the samples. Also, we revealed intriguing differences on adolescents' FTP and RF strategies across the three countries. The findings suggest that FTP and RF play an important role in the learning efforts and career planning of adolescents across different countries. •Adolescent regulatory foci (RF) relate differently to future time perspective (FTP).•Parent RF relate via FTP to adolescents' educational outcomes and career planning.•FTP relates positively to education and career planning across the three counties.•Motivational strategies for education and career planning are culturally invariant.•Adolescents from countries with more uncertainties develop stronger RF and FTP.