The Association between Perceived Social Hardship and Future Orientation among Hong Kong Young People: The Mediation Role of Belief in a Just World.

Jian-Bin Li

doi:10.3390/ijerph17144957

Abstract

A positive future orientation (FO) is associated with a range of positive outcomes. It is a crucial resilience factor that assists individuals to navigate developmental difficulties during the transition to young adulthood and during periods of social adversity. Exposure to negative social context threatens young people’s FO. The social demonstrations and the outbreak of coronavirus disease in Hong Kong over the past year have caused considerable hardship to the local society. Under such circumstance, young people in Hong Kong may develop a negative FO. Scant research has directly examined the relationship between perceived social hardship and FO as well as the underlying mechanism among Hong Kong young people. In this study, we tested the idea that young people’s perceived social hardship would be negatively related to FO via belief in a just world, a well-known foundation for individuals to think, feel, and plan their future. Participants were 554 students recruited from eight universities in Hong Kong. They filled in self-report questionnaires online. Results of structural equation modeling supported our hypothesis. These findings shed light on how to nurture Hong Kong young people to develop a positive mindset during periods of social hardship.

Highlights

Future orientation (FO) refers to an individual’s attitude toward the future [1]
Mounting evidence has suggested that young adults with a positive FO show better well-being and engage in behaviors that constructively contribute to the society, while young adults with a negative FO show poorer wellbeing and tend to engage in behaviors that may jeopardize the society’s values, economy, and public safety [3,4,5]
We examined the association between perceived social hardship (PSH) and various FO components and the mediation effect of Belief in a just world (BJW) among young people in Hong Kong

Summary

Introduction

Future orientation (FO) refers to an individual’s attitude toward the future [1]. It becomes especially salient during late adolescence/young adulthood when the exploration of life and career becomes important [2]. Since the Great Recession that occurred in the late 2000 in US and many European countries, researchers increasingly recognize the importance to examine the effect of social hardship on young adults beliefs and outlooks, because exposure to social hardship (e.g., economic crisis, violence, negative geopolitical changes) may undermine an individual’s FO [9]. In addition to global changes, Hong Kong society has experienced tremendous adversity over the past year primarily due to two events. One is the social demonstrations since June 2019, and the other is the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion