Associations Between Visions of the Future and Educational Outcomes of Young Adults

Abstract

Introduction. This study aims to examine the association between young adults’ visions of their own future and their Unified State Examination (USE) scores. The present study is the first to detail this vision and define the meaning-based content of young adults’ visions of the future and self-assessments of their existing achievements in comparison with the expected ones. Methods. The study was conducted in two stages with a 2.5-year interval. In the first stage, the Me in 5 Years inventory was used on a sample of 1538 male and female young adults aged 14–28 years. In the second stage, 150 subjects of those who participated in the first stage of experiment answered questions about their USE results, about their own achievements, which they assumed in descriptions at the first stage, and about the reasons for poor performance. Results. To reach high levels of academic performance, modern young adults need to have a vision of their lives, in the context of their knowledge and what they can do on their own. There is a significant correlation between young adults’ self-assessments of their own achievements and the USE scores. Young adults with low elective USE scores indicate that they achieved their plans earlier than planned. Young adults’ confidence that everything they planned for the near future may really happen but later than expected is associated with average USE scores in compulsory subjects. Discussion. The USE represents a kind of systematization of plans for young adults with average USE scores in compulsory subjects. Those who are less successful in passing the USE in elective subjects have no clear life goals and cannot objectively assess their achievability.

Keywords

• youth
• modern youth
• generation z
• academic success
• self-determination
• unified state examination
• use result
• life trajectory
• life planning
• future