Future Orientation and Well-Being in High School Students: Mediation Role of School Connectedness

This study examined the relationship between future orientation and well-being mediated by school connectedness. Data were collected from 380 high school adolescents in Shiraz (Iran) in 2021. Participants completed the Future-Orientation Questionnaire, the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) to assess their future orientation, school connectedness, and well-being, respectively. Results revealed that students’ future orientation (toward academic or career futures) was positively related with school connectedness (b = .78). Future orientation was also significantly associated with their feeling of well-being (b = .61). School connectedness was significantly associated with the feeling of well-being as well (b = .62). According to the results, future orientation had an indirect significant effect (b = .48) on the well-being; based on this, school connectedness played a significant mediating role in the relation between future orientation and well-being. The results recommend that school connectedness may be a mechanism by which adolescents’ orientation toward academic or career futures may have an effect on their feeling well-being.