Adolescents' basic personal values and sense of coherence

Abstract

This study focused on the relation between adolescents' basic personal values, so as conceptualized in Schwartz's Value Theory, and sense of coherence (SOC). SOC, which describes a general attitude towards life in terms of comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, is a resource for coping with stress and improving health. Five hundred and ninety-four Italian adolescents, aged between 14 and 19years, filled out the Portrait Values Questionnaire and the Orientation Life Questionnaire. Results showed that values explained a moderate proportion of the variations among adolescents with regard to SOC. Adolescents' conservative and self-transcendence values were the most important predictors of adolescents' SOC: the more importance was given to conservatism and self-transcendence, the stronger was the confidence in the perception that problems to face are clear, manageable, and worthy of commitment and engagement. Implications of these results and their possible developments are discussed.