Future Planning both at School and in Other Contexts: the case of Finnish and Polish general‐secondary and vocational‐school students

Abstract

Three‐hundred and fifty‐two 17‐year‐old students, from both academic and voca‐tional tracks in Finland and Poland, completed a questionnaire, in which they reported the amount of non‐domain‐specific future planning (at school, at home, with friends, by mass media and alone), and two measures of self‐evaluation (self‐esteem and control over future). The students reported planning most when they were alone, followed when they were with peers, then at home, then by mass media and least planning occurred at school. Girls reported more planning at home and with peers than boys did in both countries. General‐secondary‐school students reported more planning when they consumed mass media than vocational‐school students did. Polish students reported less planning at school than Finnish students did. General‐secondary‐school students expressed higher self‐esteem and control over their future than vocational‐school students did. Polish students expressed higher self‐esteem than Finnish students. The lowest self‐esteem, which was connected with a low level of planning, was found among Finnish vocational‐school students, probably reflecting the unemployment level in Finland. Self‐evaluation was found to correlate more strongly with Polish than with Finnish students’ planning at home, indicating a collectivistic pattern among the Polish students. These findings suggest that future planning reflects general developmental patterns in both countries, while self‐evaluation reflects the combined effect of socio‐cultural change and the educational track taken within each country.