Adolescent Future Orientation Research: Global Trends and Emerging Directions (2021–2025)

Future orientation is a central construct in adolescent development, shaping goal setting, decision-making, and long-term life planning. During the 2021–2025 publication period, research on adolescent future orientation expanded across multiple psychological domains, including psychological well-being, identity development, educational pathways, and COVID-19-related issues. However, the intellectual structure, collaboration patterns, and emerging directions of this research field have not been comprehensively synthesized. This study aimed to examine the global research landscape of adolescent future orientation by identifying publication trends, influential contributors, collaboration networks, thematic structures, and emerging research directions between 2021 and 2025. A bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed publications was conducted using Biblioshiny (RStudio) and VOSviewer. The findings indicate that research has increasingly focused on psychological well-being, identity development, educational transitions, and mental health, while COVID-19 emerged as one of several prominent research themes. Research output and international collaboration were predominantly led by authors and institutions from high-income countries, revealing disparities in global scientific contributions. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the evolving research landscape and identifies underexplored areas, including contextual and relational influences, developmental processes, and methodological innovations, offering directions for future research on adolescent development and future orientation.