Expectativas del tiempo futuro de los adolescentes de primero de bachillerato de dos instituciones en la ciudad de Cuenca en el periodo 2020-2021

Abstract

Future tense expectations refer to how people express attitudes and behaviors of anticipation and construction of future events. The expectations of the future time play a motivational role in people's lives because they allow them to set goals in the short or long

term. In the stage of adolescence, psychological changes arise, which intervene in decision- making related to identity formation, studies, establishment of a home and search for a job.

The objective of this research was to describe the expectations of the future time of adolescents between 14 and 16 years of age in urban and rural areas of two institutions in the city of Cuenca. The specific objectives were aimed at characterizing the expectations of the future time according to the economic, academic, personal and family well-being dimensions; distinguish the expectations of the future time according to the territorial location and according to sex. A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional study with a descriptive scope was considered. We worked with a sample of 104 students enrolled in the 2020-2021 academic period. The instrument used was the Scale of Future Expectations in Adolescence, which made it possible to identify how adolescents believe their future will be by imagining themselves in a few years. The sociodemographic variable of the urban area compared to the rural area was taken into consideration, in addition to age, gender, with whom they live and socioeconomic level. In the results, it was shown that all the participants had greater interest in academic expectations in relation to the level of study they hope to achieve, and obtained a lower score regarding family expectations, that is, they have less concern about the possibility of form a stable family and have children. No differences were determined according to the area of residence. For future research, it would be interesting to analyze with a broader sample, considering tax, commission and private institutions, in addition to including the socioeconomic level variable.