Abstract
This study examined daily experiences of interest in and across the social contexts of family and in- and out-of-school peers. Forty-two Dutch adolescents, aged 13–15 years, provided us with 2 weeks of experience sampling data on their engagement in interesting topics and activities throughout their daily lives. Findings show that adolescent daily life included a diverse range of parallel interests. School-related interests made up a substantial part of adolescents’ daily lives, challenging the idea of mere disengagement of secondary school students in academics. Findings also show that some interests are strongly bound to a specific context, while others appear across family and peer contexts. This indicates how multiple contexts can simultaneously feed interests, something that calls for further across-context research of interest development.
Highlights
Adolescence is a developmental phase characterized by many physical, emotional, and social changes (e.g., Crone and Dahl 2012; Steinberg and Morris 2001)
Adolescents tend to seek opportunities to engage with the content of their interests both in and out of school, a process that contributes to their identity formation and, affects their educational choices (Hofer 2010; Jacobs and Eccles 2000; Krapp 2002)
Following the research stated above, we aim to investigate all interests that adolescents encounter in daily life, including interests in domains of leisure, school, maintenance, socializing, and media, thereby focusing on adolescents aged 13– 15 years, a period in life in which interests are already found to be relatively stable (Low and Rounds 2007)
Summary
Adolescence is a developmental phase characterized by many physical, emotional, and social changes (e.g., Crone and Dahl 2012; Steinberg and Morris 2001). During this phase, adolescents develop idiosyncratic interests crucial for the development of self (Krapp 1999, 2002), real-life choices, future orientation, and general well-being (Rounds and Su 2014; Sharp and Coatsworth 2012), and these interests are important determinants for engagement and achievement in school (Ainley 2012; Schiefele et al 1992). Most research has investigated these two sources of interest separately
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