What does the future hold for Nigerian adolescents?

Initial development and validation of adolescents future orientation scale

Abstract

Three studies examined construct validity of Adolescents’ Future Orientation Scale (hope & fear) in Nigeria sample. Study one utilized qualitative method to establish items of Adolescents’ Future Orientation Scale with 300 adolescents selected from three ethnic groups Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba in Nigeria. Second study examined exploratory factor analysis (EFA), internal consistency (Cronbach Alpha) with 150 participants, while study three assessed criterion related validity, concurrent, divergent and predictive validity of the scale utilizing 97 sample. Result of study one showed that percentage of agreement for hope for future among assessed sample of three ethnic groups was 97% and 98% for fear of future. Also, results of study two indicated that kmo was adequate .91, Bartlett test was significant at P ˂ 0.000. Two factors loading (hope for the future & fear of the future) was clearly extracted. Total Cronbach Alpha α = .94; sub-scale of hope for the future α = .76 and sub-scale of fear of future α = .97 and item-total correlation (itc) ranged from .35 to .88. Study three provided additional evidence for concurrent, divergent and predictive validity. When hope sub-scale of AFOS was correlated with fear of future sub-scale (n = 97, -.24*) yielding reasonable divergent validity, while hope was correlated with motivation persistence (n = 97, .25*). Discussion was based on the general utility of the scale, limitation and suggestions for further studies.