Characterizing adolescents' interest in and out of school: Understanding multiplicity and dynamics in persons, objects and contexts

Abstract

The research described in this thesis demonstrates how adolescents (aged 13-16 years) have different, parallel interests, in terms of what they report in relation to their future as well as in everyday life. A large part of adolescents for example showed similar levels of interest in a combination of vocational domains, whereas other adolescents showed specific interest in one particular domain.

Adolescents engage in their interests in parallel contexts (at home, school, or with peers) and are able to make connections between these multiple worlds. We found that adolescents are not only interested in leisure or media content, as may be expected, but that school is also part of adolescents’ interest in daily life. Interests can emerge through participating in school, but school can also play a role in triggering or supporting interests outside of school (such as gaming). This thesis was the first to examine adolescents’ real-time engagement with their interests in daily life on a larger scale, using a smartphone app. Extensive analysis of daily interest experiences over time has taught us that an experience of interest may change from moment-to-moment, as each situation is different in terms of the opportunities it provides and how adolescents interpret it. Moreover, interests tend to be specific to a person, as each individual is developing a unique sense of self in adolescence. As a consequence, interest development is hard to predict, as interest sustainment depends on different processes related to the person, its objects of interest and contexts in daily life.