CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Nurmi (1997) states that the self-definition process consists of setting personal goals, constructing plans for their realization, and evaluating goal achievements. In the course of this process, adolescents and young adults form conceptualizations about themselves described in terms of identity formation and self-concept. Commonly defined, optimism reflects an expectation that good things will happen, even when confronting difficult circumstances. In 1988 a sample of 175 13-14 year-old students attending 8th grade in Paraná, Argentina, was randomly selected. This group -that hereafter will be referred to as Sample 1- was followed up two, four and eleven years later with 7% attrition (N=163); 51% of the sample were male. At each time of measurement, they completed internalizing problem measures and responded to a five-point item regarding their optimism about their future as adults. Ten years later, 698 13-16 year-old adolescents, 50% male, attending 8th-10th grade, were randomly selected. This group -that hereafter will be referred to as Sample 2- was assessed in 1998, and followed up 2 and 4 years later, with 7% attrition (N=648). At each time of measurement, they completed internalizing and externalizing problem measures and only at Time 3, responded to a five-point item regarding their optimism about their future as adults. Results suggested that in spite of the serious difficulties Argentina has undergone, their adolescents were mostly optimistic about their personal future, as is the case in more prosperous and foreseeable countries. The percentage of optimists was higher instead of lower when the economic and institutional context got worse. Despite the deterioration of Argentinian secondary schooling, how competent adolescents felt in that setting was influential on their optimism about their future. In both ages and in both genders the role of depression is similar but a remarkable change, the decrease in the impact of the scholastic domain, could be observed in emerging adult women. Finally, adolescent optimism about personal future predicted psychological wellbeing in emerging adulthood beyond adolescent level of wellbeing. All these results were found in spite of the precarious measurement of the construct.

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