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. 2025 Mar;54(3):720-735.
doi: 10.1007/s10964-024-02092-6. Epub 2024 Sep 25.

Developmental Trajectories of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Goals From Early to Late Adolescence and the Association with Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Peng Sun  1 , Chenxi Liu  2 , Xiaonan Yao  3 , Jingxin Zhao  4 , Yu Kou  5
Affiliations

Developmental Trajectories of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Goals From Early to Late Adolescence and the Association with Internalizing and Externalizing Problems

Peng Sun et al. J Youth Adolesc. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Although numerous studies have explored the causes and consequences of intrinsic and extrinsic life goals, the developmental trend of life goals during adolescence has not been well understood. To address this research gap, this study explored the developmental changes of the pursuit of intrinsic and extrinsic goals during early, middle, and late adolescence, and examined the relation between life goals and internalizing/externalizing problems from a developmental perspective. A total of 4703 Chinese adolescents from primary (N = 1819, 47.8% girls, Mage T1 = 9.34, SDage T1 = 0.58), middle (N = 1525, 47.5% girls, Mage T1 = 12.47, SDage T1 = 0.59), and high school (N = 1646, 51.9% girls, Mage T1 = 15.45, SDage T1 = 0.65) participated in this two-year, three-wave longitudinal study. The results revealed that the pursuit of intrinsic goals increased among primary school students, but decreased among middle and high school students. Conversely, the pursuit of extrinsic goals exhibited a consistent increase among adolescents in primary, middle, and high school. Girls have higher initial levels of intrinsic goals than boys in primary school, and boys' intrinsic goals declined faster than girls' in middle school. Additionally, the initial level and developmental rate of intrinsic goals among three developmental stages were significantly associated with internalizing/externalizing problems, with lower initial level, slower growth rate, and faster decline rate being associated with more internalizing and externalizing problems. The significant association between the initial level and developmental rate of extrinsic goals and internalizing/externalizing problems were mainly observed among late adolescents, with higher initial level and growth rate being associated with more internalizing and externalizing problems. These findings delineate the differences in developmental trends between intrinsic and extrinsic goals, underscore the robust relation between intrinsic goals and internalizing/externalizing problems, and figure out the development-stage differences in the relation between extrinsic goals and internalizing/externalizing problems.

Keywords: Adolescence; Developmental changes; Internalizing/externalizing problems; Life goals.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethical Standards. Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical Approval: The research procedures employed in this study were in accordance with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and have been approved by the Institutional Review Board of the corresponding author’s institution. Informed Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all participants’ parents before measures. All participants agreed to participate in the current study and were told that they had the right to withdraw from the study at any time.

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