Kerrotut tulevaisuudet – tulkitut vahvuudet ajan muutoksessa : nuorten tarinallisia kirjoitelmia tulevasta elämästään vuosilta 1997 ja 2015 ; Reported futures – interpreted strengths in time change: young people’s stories of their future life in 1997 and 2015

Aims of this study. The purpose of this study was to describe eight-graders' future narratives in terms of both their qualitative contents and narrative construction. The theoretical framework focused on examining the concept of strength and its construction in narratives utilising the approaches of positive psychology, development psychology and narrative psychology. An integration model of strengths was constructed to support the examination. The aim of this study was to describe how the adolescents' future narratives were constructed and what kinds of qualitative factors and strengths these narratives contain. A further aim was to examine the qualitative similarities and differences between the narratives written in 1997 and 2015. By focusing on the concepts of strength, the adolescents' narratives were considered to provide additional knowledge to educational work. This approach was also perceived to provide possibilities for supporting adolescents in shaping their own paths and building positive future narratives. Methods. The research group consisted of adolescents in the eighth grade. The participants consisted of twelve boys and twelve girls in both 1997 and 2015. In total, the examined group comprised of 48 adolescents (N=48). The qualitative data consisted of written narratives from 1997 and 2015. The adolescents' narratives were analysed with the constructed qualitative frame of four phases. The qualitative data were categorized, organized into themes and worked through to depict different narrative forms and plots. The analysis was completed by examining similarities and differences in the narratives. The analysis applied was influenced by a hermeneutic approach and was supported by the theory section of this study. Results and conclusions. The following themes related to strength were identified: love, modesty, innovation, sociality, autonomy, functionality and trust. Additional themes that emerged from the contents included the proximity of the environment, globality, and personal negativity. The ...