A sense of purpose—a feeling that your life has direction and your actions are meaningful—is fundamental to human well-being.

Now, researchers are learning that finding a sense of purpose is a crucial stage in adolescence, and they are evaluating programs designed to help teens cultivate purpose.

“In a way, [purpose] functions a lot like a carrot on a stick: it constantly moves us toward a distant objective without ever being reached,” said Kaylin Ratner, director of the Self and Psychological Well-being Lab at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“Purpose is important for adolescents, in part, because this period of the lifespan is an unparalleled period for self-discovery and identity development,” she said. “Purpose not only helps us organize our life goals and everyday behaviors, it can also serve as a platform for enacting our values—the things that represent us and truly matter for who we are.”

Ratner, who earned her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Cornell University in 2020, researches how young people develop identity, purpose, and meaning in life. She’s been studying a program called GripTape, which provides support for teens ages 14-19 to pursue an interest or learn something they are passionate about. Ratner has worked closely with BCTR Director Anthony Burrow, who is a co-author on her GripTape papers.

GripTape was founded in 2015 by Mark Murphy, an educator and former Secretary of Education in Delaware. He was looking for a way to give young people opportunities to pursue their passions.

Since then, more than 3,800 teens have participated in GripTape’s Learning Challenge. The program gives selected teens up to $500 and ten weeks to learn anything they want. Teens are matched with an adult Champion, who helps to encourage them, but all of the learning is self-guided.

To date, learners have used the program for a myriad of explorations including learning how to mountain bike, starting a make-up business, providing feminine hygiene products to homeless women, and starting a podcast. There are no limitations to the topics teens can pursue, and there are no grades or evaluations at the end of the program.

“Youth are a lot more purposeful than we think,” Ratner said. “GripTape gives them a platform for pursuing that purpose and, when they do, it clearly has good outcomes.”

In one study, Ratner and her team followed more than 300 youth who participated in GripTape to track their personal sense of purpose. Most of the teens in the study began with a high sense of purpose that increased over the course of their Learning Challenge. Ratner found that having a sense of agency – the feeling of being in charge of yourself and able to shape your own outcomes – was an important component in teen’s abilities to strengthen their sense of purpose during program enrollment.

In another study of GripTape participants, Ratner’s team found that when teens felt more purposeful, there were more likely to report higher levels of well-being, including greater life satisfaction and better moods.

This held true even for teens who reported having high levels of autistic traits, such as poor social skills, anxiety, and difficulty adjusting to change. This is notable because teens who report those traits tend to also report lower levels of well-being. And it is an important finding because it implies that a sense of purpose may benefit a diverse range of youth.

In a third study, the team looked closely at the impact that adult Champions had on GripTape participants. Over more than two months, they found that youth reported greater psychosocial functioning – an elevated sense of purpose, clearer beliefs about themselves, and higher self-esteem – on days they interacted with their Champion.

“Champions end up functioning a lot like cheerleaders and sounding boards,” Ratner said. “All in all, no matter what youth have going on at home, a Champion ensures that at least one adult in their life is supportive and invested in what they are doing. Supportive adults, in general, can be important for helping youth build their self-confidence and self-efficacy.”

The take-home message from all of this research: Programs meant to help teens foster their own sense of purpose can help bolster self-confidence, mood, and life satisfaction – all elements that improve the overall well-being of adolescents.