Youth purpose among the ‘greatest generation’

Abstract

Purpose is a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once important to self and directed at making a difference in the world beyond the self. In the present study, ratings of one aspect of purpose, pro-social beyond-the-self intentions, were gleaned from data collected from young men attending college between 1938 and 1942 as a part of the Study of Adult Development. Associations were examined between pro-social beyond-the-self intentions and childhood environment, and between pro-social beyond-the-self intentions and college and adult personality, psychological adjustment, and achievement. Higher levels of pro-social beyond-the-self intentions were associated with informant ratings of global impressions of positive childhood environment, and with humanistic, political, and well-integrated personality dispositions in college.