Family or career? Happiness and success of youth through orientation towards professional and family values

Abstract

This article explores the connection between young people’s focus on professional and family values and their subjective sense of happiness and success. This subject is pertinent in today’s world, where an increasing number of youths prioritize material accomplishments and careers, often neglecting their personal lives and relationships. The empirical findings are derived from the authors’ sociological study involving young participants (aged 14–35) and utilizing a questionnaire as the research method. The findings indicate that young individuals who exhibit strong career orientations are less happy, while those with predominant family values experience greater success and report higher levels of subjective happiness. However, examining the respondents’ family and professional values reveals a complex and multifaceted distribution among “happy”/“unhappy” and “successful”/“unsuccessful” categories, preventing a clear-cut and polarized classification of these groups. Investigating young people’s focus on professional and family values helps us comprehend their influence on happiness, success, and self-realization. The importance of maintaining a balance between work and personal life is emphasized, as seen through the lens of self-perceived happiness and success, ultimately contributing to more comprehensive individual self-realization and improved life satisfaction. This knowledge can assist educational institutions, youth policy implementation divisions, and education departments in devising effective strategies to support young people’s life choices and growth, as well as in establishing conditions that promote more complete self-realization. Examining young people’s orientation towards professional and family values can enable society to better understand and address the changing value orientations of young individuals and implement appropriate measures to support their needs and interests.