From purpose in life to global engagement: the mediating role of global mindedness in adolescence

Introduction Adolescents’ purpose in life is a vital psychosocial resource associated with social contribution. This study investigates how purpose in life promotes engagement with global issues and whether this relationship is mediated by global mindedness - a core construct within the OECD Global Competence framework. Methods Using PISA 2018 data ( N = 344,285 from 61 countries), we estimated a cross-national mediation model incorporating sampling weights and clustering effects to ensure robust estimation. Results Results show that a stronger purpose in life significantly predicts both higher global mindedness and greater engagement with global issues. Discussion Global mindedness partially mediates this relationship, bridging the conceptual distance between individual meaning-making and collective global responsibility. While traditional purpose frameworks conceptualize purpose in life as extending “beyond the self,” empirical development of these theories has been largely situated within proximal social contexts such as family, school, and community. The present study extends this line of inquiry by demonstrating that global mindedness functions as a cognitive and affective lens through which purpose is channeled into the global domain. While the observed effect sizes and explained variance were modest, these results were consistent across a rigorous analytical framework accounting for complex survey designs. Our findings provide empirical support for an integrative structural relationship where purpose in life provides the motivation, and global mindedness provides the global orientation necessary to link internal meaning with external civic actions. In conclusion, these findings suggest that the relationship between adolescents’ purpose in life and their global engagement is likely to be enhanced when accompanied by global mindedness, providing empirical support for the integration of purpose and global citizenship education.