Cultivating Purpose in K-12 School Settings

Psychological research on purpose began in earnest about twenty years ago, and since then, at least two clear findings have emerged. First, leading a life of purpose is a good thing. Individuals who pursue purpose benefit, and so do the groups, areas, and causes they find purpose in supporting. Second, despite the benefits of leading a life of purpose, the experience is rare. Only about 1 in 5 high school-aged youth report leading a life of purpose. Taking these findings together, efforts to cultivate purpose, especially in schools, have garnered increased interest of late. This project endeavors to map the landscape of K-12 school-based purpose interventions and to make empirically based recommendations regarding how these efforts could be scaled more broadly.

This grant has supported several large-scale initiatives focused on cultivating purpose among students and educators across K–12 educational settings. Collectively the projects associated with this grant aim to better understand how purpose develops and to design practical tools that support meaningful engagement, well-being, and an enduring commitment to contributing to the broader world in personally meaningful ways.

Key projects supported by this grant include a longitudinal study examining how purpose relates to academic and developmental outcomes up to ten years later, as well as the development and validation of the Purpose, Achievement, and Happiness Mindset Scale and its associations with well-being. We are also collaborating with researchers and practitioners to study exemplar schools that effectively foster purpose, identifying the practices and environments that support students’ purpose development.

In addition to research, this grant supports applied efforts to translate findings into practice. These include the creation of an accessible, self-guided purpose toolkit for school counselors to help students explore career pathways through a purpose-oriented lens, as well as a year-long professional development program designed to support educators in cultivating their own purpose and fostering it in their students.

Together, this work advances a comprehensive understanding of how purpose can be nurtured in educational contexts—and how doing so promotes individual well-being, positive development, and purpose-driven contributions to society.

Principal Investigators: Kendall Cotton Bronk and Belle Liang (Boston College)
Team Members: Jared Hales
Funder: Walton Family Foundation