Mpower: An Evidence-Based Youth Purpose Program

Students with a greater sense of purpose may be more academically engaged and successful for a number of reasons (Adelabu, 2008; Damon et al., 2003; Wang, Hill, & Hofkens, 2014; Minehan et al., 2000). For example, personally meaningful goals are self-motivating and lead to productive engagement toward one’s goals (Bronk, Hill, Lapsley, Talib, & Finch, 2009; Damon et al., 2003). In particular, a future-oriented purpose may infuse a sense of relevance and direction into a youth’s approach to the mundane or challenging tasks of daily life (Liang et al., 2017). When a student lacks a long-term purpose, academic engagement can seem pointless, but when there is such purpose, students find the motivation to engage in the most challenging of academic tasks because they see these tasks as prerequisites for and part of their larger purpose. These links between future orientation and academic achievement are consistent across ethnicity and race (Seginer, 2009).

Despite research on the various benefits of youth purpose related to school engagement, school-based programs explicitly designed to cultivate youth purpose are scarce (Liang et al., 2017). Indeed, only 20% of youth have a clear sense of purpose; the rest do not yet have a sense of purpose or purposeful goals, or may not even know how to seek purpose (Damon, 2009). To address this major gap, Liang and colleagues (Liang et al., 2016; Liang et al., 2017) have conducted research on factors associated with the development of youth purpose. They identified four salient factors called the “4 Ps” that collectively shaped purpose: (a) people—relationships that empower youth to pursue the purpose, (b) passion—an abiding interest in activities or things associated with a purpose, (c) propensity—a fit with the purpose based on strengths and skills, (d) prosocial benefits—a desire to benefit other people or society as a whole.

MPOWER translates this research and theory on youth purpose into practice by specifically incorporating the 4 Ps into its structure and content. That is, the program works through key people or relationships to help youth identify and cultivate their passion, propensity, and prosocial benefits as these relate to aspirations. MPOWER includes a classroom based, year-long curriculum that is provided weekly for 1 hour by a master’s level guidance counselor. In addition, the school’s MPOWER instructor (e.g., a master’s level guidance counselor) meets approximately once or twice a month with each student to provide MPOWER-informed one-to-one college and career counseling (i.e., purpose development curriculum integrated with traditional college and career counseling and guidance). The theoretical basis and program approaches to each of these foci are described in greater detail below.

In general, the program’s primary concern is to guide youth as they grapple with several overarching questions: What do they want to achieve? Who do they want to become? How do they lead purposeful lives? As important as these questions are, they are difficult for students to explore because they are so abstract and existential. Thus, MPOWER is designed to provide a tangible process and exercises that scaffold students in their purpose journey. In the classroom, students are introduced to the purpose curriculum through experiential group activities, individual reflection, and group sharing. Each of these general strategies has proven beneficial in other youth social-psychological interventions, and are particularly relevant for cultivating purpose. For example, personal reflection through journaling and writing exercises primes students to think about their values and strengths (Cohen, Garcia, Purdie-Vaughns, Apfel, & Brzustoski, 2009), both essential components of sense of purpose. Experiential group activities increase cohesiveness and community, which improves academic performance (Nagaoka et al., 2013). Group sharing promotes a social-learning approach, which has been shown to help students cultivate their sense of purpose (Liang et al., 2016).

One-to-one college and career counseling is designed to complement the classroom curriculum and deepen students’ understanding of their own personal purpose. Through these individual sessions, students are encouraged to examine how their lived experiences, families, cultures, and communities inform each of the purpose foci. The language and framework of purpose, combined with this introspective reflection, helps students form a core narrative for their lives, connecting past and present experiences to future aspirations (Wilson, 2011).

MPOWER works through the guidance and support of relationships and communities in and out of the classroom setting. More specifically, the MPOWER curriculum focuses on the identification of Passion, Propensity, and Prosocial Benefits, described below, and is delivered through people who serve as supportive mentor figures (e.g., guidance counselor) and peer communities (e.g., classmates). In an evaluative, open-ended survey distributed to MPOWER students, Anaya specifically referred to the influence of the one-to-one counseling, stating that, “Mr. K [MPOWER instructor/counselor] helped me and actually sat down and talked to me, helped a lot.” Similarly, another student, Shanice, explained, “Mr. Klein has helped me and supported me because before MPOWER I had never thought about my purpose and how knowing my purpose will help shape my future.” Indeed, these students described the significance of having a trusted adult guiding them through the purpose curriculum in order to plan for their futures.

MPOWER also engages participants in identifying other important people (e.g., mentor figures) who have in the past played and/or presently continue to play a role in developing their purpose-related opportunities. Moreover, students are guided in identifying the ways in which they have been supported in these formative relationships. For example, Leo identified his parents as his “biggest supporters” and specifically noted how their financial support allows him to pursue his “goals without any barriers.” Another student, Veronica, described a former teacher’s influence—“my fifth grade teacher inspired me to be a writer … I knew I liked it because it was so free form. I could write whatever I wanted and its intents would never be known to anyone but me.” Through one-on-one and group conversations, the MPOWER curriculum engages students in thinking about ways they can be or have been supported by people, and once these people have been identified, the MPOWER instructor is easily able to guide students to reflect how students they were encouraged by these individuals to identify their passions, propensity, and desire to have a prosocial contribution in the world.

In addition to the critical role that key people play in cultivating purpose among young people, research has shown that the latter tend to choose and sustain engagement in a particular purpose because it is personally meaningful and of interest to them, and thus they are more likely to enjoy the tasks associated with it (Liang et al., 2016; Liang et al., 2017). In other words, youth pursue purposes about which they are passionate. Thus, the second focus of the MPOWER curriculum engages students in discovering their passions. The primary strategy for doing so is supporting youth to identify their core values. Core values are the essential higher level beliefs and ideals that an individual holds to be true about him/herself and the world (Schwartz, 2012). Individuals learn and internalize core values from formative relationships, cultural backgrounds, and specific lived experiences (Smolicz, 1981). When these values are internalized, they shape one’s self-concept (Hitlin, 2003), as well as one’s actions, behaviors, and decisions. MPOWER utilizes core values exercises to help students identify goals that are “personally meaningful to the self”; goals that do not align with core values lack in personal meaningfulness (Schwartz, 2012). Thus, a long-term goal or aspiration is considered purposeful if the student him/herself finds it to be a fit with his/her own core values.

MPOWER employs exercises for exploring core values that are informed by motivational interviewing and self-affirmation theory (Resnicow & McMaster, 2012). Motivational interviewing is an evidence-based, counseling technique for decision-making (Christie & Channon, 2013) that improves academic performance, particularly among disengaged students (Atkinson & Wood, 2003; Frey et al., 2011). In MPOWER’s Motivational Interviewing exercise, students are provided with a list of core values and asked to: (a) identify the ones most relevant to them (Miller, C’de, Baca, Mathews, & Wilbourne, 2001), and (b) consider how these align with their future college and career options. Through group discussion, as well as individual sessions with the MPOWER guidance counselor, students discuss how they can live out these values in their present lives. The goal of this exercise is to enable students to develop a robust understanding of their core values, how they evolved, and how to align various aspects of their current lives and activities with their core values. These core values help students see how their higher level, abstract goals form the foundation of their daily choices, as well as their long-term dreams, desires, and aspirations. For example, one MPOWER student named Alyssa reflected on whether or not her core values were consistent with her interest in joining the United States Army versus pursuing higher education. When Alyssa compared her personal values (independence, creativity, compassion, equality) to the values of the United States Army (loyalty, duty, respect, honor, etc.), she felt that joining the Army did not align with her core values and thus was not a good fit for her. Instead, she chose to pursue studying political science at a college that seemed to better fit with her core values. Ultimately, studies have shown that providing students an opportunity in academic settings to identify their core values improves academic engagement and performance in the classroom (Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, & Master, 2006; Sherman et al., 2013); these improvements are likely related to students’ clarity on the relevance of current academic activities to long-term aspirations.

The MPOWER curriculum also includes an self-affirmation theory-adapted exercise to help students understand why their core values are so personally relevant and how they can pursue them through their long-term aspirations. Self-affirmation theory strategies, which personalize tasks and goals, are beneficial because they encourage students to make connections between their school work and their core values, ultimately increasing the relevance of their school work and overall student engagement. Moreover, these strategies are particularly effective among low-performing and underrepresented students in improving academic performance (Cohen et al., 2009; Jordt et al., 2017). As an example of self-affirmation theory activity, a student, Jaylen, identified integrity, loyalty, mastery and respect as the core values he holds in athletics as a basketball player. Jaylen then could easily draw connections between these same core values and his actions and behaviors in the classroom. Finally, Jaylen identified specific actions he would engage in order to better live out his core values in school, a process that increased his academic engagement.

People are intrinsically driven to pursue aspirations that are personally meaningful (Caprara & Steca, 2007), but must also possess relevant strengths and skills to actively pursue and achieve these aspirations (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Indeed, research on cultivating purpose among diverse youth demonstrated that they not only had passion, but also a propensity for their particular purpose (Liang et al., 2016; Liang et al., 2017). That is, they named certain skills and traits they perceived to be relevant to their purpose. This research also suggested that a lack of fit between a student’s aspirations and strengths may lead to discouragement, decreased motivation, and failure to achieve (Liang et al., 2017; Oettingen & Mayer, 2002). Similarly, studies have shown that people find careers more meaningful and enjoyable when they utilize their strengths (Harzer & Ruch, 2012), and thus must be supported to develop them in a way that leads to competence and mastery (Urdan & Schoenfelder, 2006).

Thus, the third focus of MPOWER is to identify and develop propensity, or personal “strengths and skills.” This strength-based approach, derived from positive youth development, differs from traditional adolescent psychology by focusing on drawing out youths’ strengths, rather than focusing on deficits (Catalano, Berglund, Ryan, Lonczak, & Hawkins, 2004). Strength-based approaches in school counseling have been shown to improve student resilience, especially in diverse and multicultural school environments (Ponterotto, Mendelowitz, & Collabolletta, 2008). When youth are confident in their abilities and have high expectations for success, they subsequently get better grades (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000).

The importance of identifying strengths and skills in purpose cultivation is further supported by self-determination theory (SDT; Hui & Tsang, 2012), which posits that individuals find meaning and fulfillment through intrinsic goals (e.g., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) rather than extrinsic ones (e.g., money, prestige, or status) (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Self-determination theory explains that people seek to contribute their unique skills to the wellbeing of their communities. In particular, the character strengths (i.e., positive traits reflected in one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior that lead to human flourishing), such as curiosity, creativity, and citizenship are correlated with many positive outcomes, including fulfillment, classroom success and achievement, and passion and increased well-being in the workplace (Forest et al., 2012; Park & Peterson, 2008; Waters, 2011). Indeed, when low-income students from an urban school were asked to reflect on their moral and character strengths, levels of integrity, perseverance, and sense of community increased (Seider, Novick, & Gomez, 2013). In addition, priming students to think about their character strengths can improve academic performance by mitigating the effects of stereotype threat (i.e., the fear that students will conform to stereotypes about certain social groups to which they belong) (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; Steele, 1997). Thus, the cultivation of students’ character strengths has important implications for launching them successfully into the workplace (Forest et al.,2012).

The MPOWER program helps students identify their character strengths and skills and emphasizes their importance in considering long-term purposeful pursuits. For example, participants take the VIA Institute on Character Survey, which has been shown to identify character strengths correlated with job and life satisfaction in adults (Harzer & Ruch, 2012; Lavy & Littman-Ovadia, 2016). Through jour-naling, group discussion, and one-on-one counseling, students consider the character strengths and skills they utilize in various contexts, such as their school, family, and communities. They identify ways in which they have made a positive impact through the use of their skills in each of these contexts and imagine other areas of their lives in which they can leverage these skills and strengths to make personally meaningful contributions in the world beyond themselves. In particular, they consider their character strengths in the context of their potential vocational aspirations to determine best possible fit. Through the survey activity, Jason realized that he could use his three signature character strengths (love of learning, social intelligence, teamwork) to help him come up with innovative ways to create reentry programs for incarcerated youth.

The fourth focus of MPOWER is on impact and contribution, based on the finding that prosocial benefits is a major motivator in the development of youth purpose (Liang et al., 2016). Rather than being solely motivated by personal gains, purposeful students from diverse backgrounds described the desire to benefit others or the world beyond themselves. Thus, in the MPOWER program, “impact” refers to contribution beyond the self. When students know the positive impact they can make in the world through their actions, their academic efforts seem worthy and relevant (Yeager et al., 2014). Impact is important for students to understand and consider because it differentiates short-term hedonistic pursuits from long-term, purposeful goals (Sheldon, Ryan, Deci, & Kasser, 2004). When students can identify personally meaningful activities (e.g., socializing, video games, sports, and social media) but are not aware of how they can be beneficial to the world beyond themselves, the activity may not contribute to their sense of purpose. Conversely, a student may have a self-focused goal that is also associated with altruistic intentions. For example, there are young people who dream of pursuing careers in professional sports for more reasons than personal glory, but because they believe pursuing these careers can make a positive impact on their families (Fisher, Juszczak, & Friedman, 1996). Providing an opportunity for students to reflect on what impact they wish to have in the lives of others can help them clarify their intrinsic motivators.

MPOWER uses a number of exercises for helping students identify ways in which they may have an impact on the world through fulfilling their aspiration(s). Students participate in an adapted version of “The Dictator Game,” which has been shown to promote altruistic intentions and prosocial behavior in participants (Brañas-Garza, 2007), and particularly youth (Benenson, Pascoe, & Radmore, 2007). This game is a market-transaction group activity in which students are randomly assigned different amounts of “money,” which determines their in-game socioeconomic ranking. Students participate in multiple rounds of the game through which they can give or receive money with their peers, improving or decreasing their ranking. Based on research and the authors’ experience implementing MPOWER, an overwhelming majority of students exhibit prosocial behavior by helping their peers at the expense of their own ranking (Benenson et al., 2007). Upon completion of this activity, students are primed to consider their own desired prosocial impact or contribution they would like to make in the world. As participants clarify these intentions, they can better formulate goals that are not just of consequence to self, but to the world beyond the self. After participating in this activity, Liliana reported that she realized that her primary motivation to study business in college was to increase her potential to provide for her mother and three siblings who live in the Dominican Republic. By clarifying her intrinsic motivation to earn more money, Liliana became even more motivated to study Accounting in college.

For each of the sessions associated with the 4 Ps (i.e., person, passion, propensity, prosocial), students are encouraged to examine how their context shapes purpose development. That is, they identify how their lived experiences, families, cultures, and communities inform each foci (i.e., people, passion, propensity, and prosocial benefits). As they develop a more personal and clear definition of purpose, informed by their work on identifying supportive people and mentors, core values and passions, skills and strengths, and prosocial desires, students then consider potential post-secondary college and career options.

Students learn to apply the MPOWER purpose framework as a decision-making tool for identifying opportunities that best align with their purpose. For example, students apply what they have learned from MPOWER to decisions regarding their college application process. Rather than focusing only on what students will do (what colleges they will go to, what their majors will be), the MPOWER curriculum encourages students to first explore why they want to pursue their long-term goals (how their aspirations align with their core values and signature strengths, as well as contributions to others or society). This process helped Miguel connect his love of watching YouTube videos with his desire to help others. Miguel had struggled with bullying and depression during his high school career and relied on YouTube videos to reduce his isolation. MPOWER helped him realize that he wanted to make videos to support high school students struggling with depression. In his college essay, Miguel wrote “Mr. K helped me realize my purpose in life: to motivate people to believe in themselves.” Miguel pursued this purpose by matriculating to college and pursuing a bachelor of fine arts with a focus on film and cinema. Leo, who had used fitness to improve his self-confidence, realized he could combine his passion for exercising with his interests in science to study exercise physiology. Leo also identified a prosocial motivation to pursue this major: to help people “feel good about their health so they can feel good about themselves.” This focus on identifying the intrinsic motivators of students’ long-term goals is intended to bring clarity and confidence to students’ decision-making and instill in them the perseverance needed to achieve these aspirations.

Research suggests that underrepresented, at-risk, and marginalized students may especially stand much to gain from interventions designed around the core components of purpose, specifically core values (Cohen et al., 2006), strengths and skills (Hellman & Gwinn, 2017), and altruistic intentions (Thoman, Brown, Mason, Harmsen, & Smith, 2015). In addition, emerging research suggests that these student populations are more likely to exhibit behaviors aligned with purpose and are more motivated to pursue purposeful goals (Wexler, DiFluvio, & Burke, 2009). Students without perceived power, or who have lower socioeconomic status, are more likely to exhibit compassionate and empathetic behavior on a daily basis (Stellar, Manzo, Kraus, & Keltner, 2012), which are viewed as essential for motivating prosocial behavior (Leiberg, Klimecki, & Singer, 2011). This suggests that marginalized and disenfranchised populations are especially suited to understand beyond-the-self goals and are thus likely to readily integrate altruistic intentions and beyond-the-self goals into their long-term aspirations. Moreover, reflecting on sources of stress, adversity, and challenges—factors that typically characterize marginalized populations—is positively correlated with cultivating a sense of purpose (Baumeister, Vohs, Aaker, & Garbinsky, 2013).

Taken together, these findings suggest that the adversity associated with marginalized populations (e.g., poverty, trauma, systemic racism, etc.) may predispose youth to benefiting from purpose interventions. Rather than focus on student deficits, this program provides an opportunity for students to reframe this narrative and identify their individual and community strengths and resources as these relate to the pursuit of their future aspirations.

Student disengagement is one of the most pressing and persistent problems in public education, affecting more than half of all high school students. Given the links between purpose development and academic engagement (Liang et al., 2016; Liang et al., 2017), cultivating purpose may be an important lever for educational and vocational success. Indeed, efforts to address chronic student disengagement provide a unique opportunity to develop youth purpose interventions and integrate them into the current academic landscape. Yet, research on programs and curricula designed to cultivate sense of youth purpose remain scarce. This article has described a youth purpose intervention that combines current research and theory in the purpose field, and best practices for positive youth development. By making explicit the connections among academic performance, post-secondary pathways, vocational opportunities, and purpose, MPOWER helps students see their future aspirations as education-dependent. When students view their school work as a critical passage on their path to purpose, the relevancy of their school and classroom experiences increases, and academic outcomes may improve.

MPOWER integrates the 4 Ps purpose development framework into the classroom curricula and guidance counseling (Liang et al., 2016). Specifically, the group and individual-based experiences facilitate the identification of students’ social and psychological resources, including people who can advocate and guide them, passions (including core values), propensity (strengths and skills), and prosocial benefits (desires to contribute to the world beyond oneself), as these are tied to one’s purpose.

The program is currently being translated into a variety of forms for flexible dissemination in different contexts. For example, the research team, working with web designers and developers are nearing completion of a beta prototype for the digital platform of MPOWER. The platform, called True North, uses the metaphor of celestial navigation to help students identify their 4 Ps and to also discover potential long-term goals that align with them. The True North application has been launched at Boston College and is currently being piloted with low income, first generation college students. In addition, research is currently underway to evaluate the efficacy of the program and supplement the anecdotes and accounts of program satisfaction that already have been collected and have helped to guide program development.