Stories of the future: Possible selves of rural South Central Appalachian students.

We explored the possible future selves of rural South Central Appalachian high school students. A total of 267 students responded to a prompt designed to assess their future possible selves and to rate the perceived attainability of that future. Using thematic analysis, we found three central themes: who students would like to be, what they would like to have, and fear and uncertainty. The first two themes encompassed a variety of subcategories. The results of an analysis of variance also showed that perceived attainability differed based on prospective first-generation status. These results have several implications for further interventions and research, including the possible benefits of using possible selves to identify the needs of students and the need for more study of how identity impacts outcomes for rural South Central Appalachians. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).