Future Orientation in Adolescents: Development and the Roles of Parenting in Different Income Countries

Future orientation – the ability to envision and plan for the future – is a crucial task during adolescence. However, little is known about how adolescents’ future orientation develops, how it is influenced by parenting dimensions, and how it varies across countries with different income levels and cultural values. This longitudinal study addresses this gap by exploring how parents’ monitoring, family obligations, individualism, collectivism, and conformity influence future orientation. The sample is composed of 1,086 adolescents (50.5% females) at ages 10, 14, 17, and 20 (mean age at study time 1 = 10.8, SD = 0.69) and their 1,071 parents (85% mothers; mean age at study time 1 = 39.4, SD = 6.8), divided into high-income (Italy, the United States), upper-middle-income (Colombia, Thailand), and lower-middle-income countries (Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines). Full information maximum likelihood multigroup latent growth curve models revealed that adolescents’ future orientation trajectories are nonlinear, that family obligations and conformity values are the parenting dimensions more strongly related to future orientation, and differences across broader economic and cultural contexts. This study clarifies the role of parental monitoring, family obligations, individualism, collectivism, and conformity values in shaping adolescents’ future orientation across cultures, highlighting the importance of responsive parenting and balanced family obligations for family-focused policies and programs.