What’s your “why?”

Youth purpose has important implications for behavior and well-being, yet there is limited information about the types of purpose that young people pursue. The current study contributes insight into the content of purpose through a survey of 316 adolescents and young adults. Analyses of responses revealed that young people rated their purposes as most strongly related to supporting their family (37%), improving lives (25%), creating, designing, or inventing something that makes a difference in the world (13%), and serving a higher power (11%). Open-ended purpose descriptions varied considerably in terms of the number of purposes reported (07) and the scope of each purpose (e.g., making people smile, achieving world peace). There were also age differences such that young adults (ages 18-29) tended to describe purposes in more concrete, realistic terms than adolescents (ages 13-18). We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding and promoting youth purpose.