Personal Goals of Adolescents in a Youth Offending Service in the United Kingdom

AuthorJames McGuire,Edel Fitzpatrick,Joanne M. Dickson
DOI10.1177/1473225414543484
Published date01 August 2015
Date01 August 2015
Subject MatterArticles
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543484YJJ0010.1177/1473225414543484Youth JusticeFitzpatrick et al.
research-article2014
Article
Youth Justice
2015, Vol. 15(2) 166 –181
Personal Goals of Adolescents in
© The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225414543484
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United Kingdom
Edel Fitzpatrick, James McGuire and Joanne
M. Dickson
Abstract
Goal pursuit is central to the developmental stage of adolescence. Here, we aimed to study how 14
adolescents in a Youth Offending Service in the United Kingdom think about their personal goal aspirations
and future, using semi-structured interviews. Based on a grounded theory approach, an explanatory
theoretical framework was developed. Analysis revealed that young people’s perceived personal future and
goal aspirations are influenced by their appraisal of past and present life events. Participants also used a range
of self-protecting strategies to avoid uncertainty and to reduce the threat of future disappointment. The
findings have potentially important clinical and policy implications.
Keywords
adolescence, future-directed thinking, goal pursuit, personal goals, youth offending
The development of personal future goals is thought to play a pivotal role in adolescent
identity formation through facilitating exploration of the self and commitment to future
interests (Nurmi, 1991). Drawing upon the prominent early work of Inhelder and Piaget
(1958), Nurmi (1991) proposed that the ability to conduct formal cognitive operations
enables the adolescent to begin to think about future goals and to construct mental action
plans to achieve their personal goals. Despite the developmental importance of personal
goals and the meaning and purpose that goals typically provide in everyday life, relatively
little is known about goal pursuit in adolescence. Even less is known about how adoles-
cents with a history of criminal activity engage in personal goal pursuit and think about
their personal future. The present research aimed to study how adolescents involved in a
Youth Offending Service (YOS) in the United Kingdom (UK) engage in the process of
thinking about personal goal aspirations and their future.
Corresponding author:
Joanne M. Dickson, University of Liverpool, Ground Floor, Whelan Building, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool, L69 3GB, UK.
Email: j.dickson@liv.ac.uk

Fitzpatrick et al.
167
The capacity to think further ahead into the future has been associated with higher lev-
els of subjective well-being (SWB), positive psychological adjustment and personality
development, whereas a short term goal focus has been associated with higher levels of
emotional distress and hopelessness (Schmuck and Sheldon, 2001; Sheldon et al., 2002)
Successful goal pursuit has also been associated with greater levels of SWB (Affleck
et al., 1998; Brunstein, 1993; Harris et al., 2003; King et al., 1998; Schmuck and Sheldon,
2001). In the case of unachievable goals, however, theories of self-regulation posit that it
is more adaptive for the individual to withdraw or to disengage and to re-invest their
energies and resources in the pursuit of other goals (Miller and Wrosch, 2007; Wrosch
et al., 2003).
Past research has found that the content of adolescents’ future goals typically include
interests such as: future occupation; education; family; leisure activities and self-
actualization (Albert and Luzzo, 1999; Massey et al., 2008; Nurmi, 1989). Socio-economic
status has also been linked to the number of goals that adolescents identify, with young
people from lower socio-economic contexts reporting fewer goal aspirations (Conger
et al., 1992; Hill et al., 2003; Schulenberg et al., 1984), and identifying factors such as
financial difficulty, institutional racism and gang membership as obstacles to personal
goal achievement (Sirin et al., 2004). However, we know relatively little about goal pro-
cesses and how adolescents who have experienced adverse life experiences or who have
been excluded from mainstream societal pathways think about their goal aspirations or
personal future. Despite large numbers of young people coming into contact with the
Youth Justice System (YJS) in the UK, research has rarely investigated how adolescents
involved in criminal activity engage in thinking about their personal goal aspirations and
future.
In England and Wales in 2010/2011, 15.5 per cent of all arrests that were made involved
young people aged between 10 and 17 years old (Youth Justice Board, 2013). In 2011/2012
there were 36,677 first time entrants who came into contact with the YJS and the rate of
re-offending amongst young people increased in comparison to the previous year (Youth
Justice Board, 2013). Higher rates and complexity of mental health difficulties have been
reported among this population of young people, relative to their peers within the general
population, with higher rates of depression, anxiety, ADHD and psychosis being reported
(Kessler et al., 2005; Teplin et al., 2002). Adolescents in the YJS have been reported to be
at increased risk of mental health difficulties due to a range of factors including poor
school attendance, learning difficulties, chaotic relationships, drug and alcohol abuse
(Casswell et al., 2012; Kessler et al., 2005; Teplin et al., 2002; Vermeiren, 2006). In a
recent report published by the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of
Offenders (Nacro, 2011), it was stated that three quarters of adolescents involved in the
YJS have serious difficulties with numeracy and literacy and that 45 per cent of these
young people are not involved in any formal education or training. Carroll et al. (2013)
reported that many adolescents develop goals congruent with the values and aims of
schools; however, they highlighted that adolescents involved in the YJS often reject such
school-based goals.
Some past research suggests that adolescents involved in criminal activity have diffi-
culty thinking about their personal future and tend to be ‘impulsive’; unable to delay

168
Youth Justice 15(2)
gratification and with ‘short term’ goals (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990; Pratt and Cullen,
2000; Wilson and Herrnstein, 1985). On the other hand, another study looking at institu-
tionalized and non-institutionalized youth, involved in criminal activity, found that these
young people had a range of hopes and fears for the future, with higher levels of hope for
their personal future than for their future within society (Trommsdorff and Lamm, 1980).
These same authors found that adolescents not involved in criminal activity reported
higher levels of hope for future self-fulfilment and physical well-being than those involved
in criminal activity. Although adolescents involved in criminal activity judged their pre-
sent and future situations less positively they also reported having a higher level of inter-
nal control over their personal future in comparison to adolescents referred to as ‘non
delinquent’. According to Trommsdorff and Lamm ‘the notion that the future orientation
of delinquents is less realistic than that of non-delinquents seems especially false, a prod-
uct of inadequate measurements and stereotyped theorising’ (Trommsdorff and Lamm,
1980: 271).
Carroll and colleagues (Carroll et al., 2001) highlight the goal-directed nature of crimi-
nal activity. Drawing upon reputation enhancement theory (Emler and Reicher, 1995), it
has been proposed that adolescents are motivated by aims and goals that lead to develop-
ing and enhancing their image (Carroll et al., 1997, 2001). Thus, criminal activity is con-
sidered goal-driven and valued as a means to enhancing one’s reputation with peers and
sense of social identity (Carroll et al., 1997; Oyserman and Saltz, 1993). In a sample of
260 males aged between 11 and 18 years old, adolescents described as ‘delinquent’ showed
significantly higher levels of commitment to developing crime-related reputations than
adolescents not involved in crime (Carroll et al., 2001). The adolescents described as
‘delinquent’ also reported higher levels of non-conformity and striving in order to be seen
by others as tough and resistant to the law.
Possible Selves Theory (Markus and Nurius, 1986; Oyserman and Markus, 1990) pos-
its that people undertake steps that will aid them in achieving their idea of a desired pos-
sible self and to avoid aspects that will prevent this achievement. Oyserman and Markus
(1990) found that adolescents involved in criminal activity were more likely to hold
expected negative possible selves associated with crime and a future of fear. These authors
contend that adolescents involved in criminal activity pursue negative representations of
their possible selves in order to facilitate reputation enhancement. According to Merton’s
(1938) early Strain Theory, however, it is thought that adolescents involved in crime may
have difficulty achieving their personal valued goal aspirations and engage in criminal
behaviour as a means of dealing with their unmet hopes and needs (Iselin et al., 2012).
Such theories suggest that adolescents involved in crime experience a discrepancy
between the value they place upon their goal aspirations and the perceived likelihood of
the goal outcomes.
A recent qualitative study by Gardner (2010) reported that talking about the future with
adolescents involved in the YJS can often become an ‘institutional compulsion’ due to the
young people’s...

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