First-Year College Students' Perceptions of What It Means to Lead a Life of Meaning and Purpose

• In Event: First-Year College Students' Perceptions of What It Means to Lead a Life of Meaning and Purpose

Abstract

Although a major goal of a liberal arts education is to foster development of persons who lead a life of meaning and purpose, limited research examines how college students perceive what it means to lead one. Qualitative analyses of data from 114, first-year college students indicate that the majority of students’ perceptions align with Damon, Menon, and Bronk’s (2003) definition: “a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and leads to productive engagement with some aspect of the world beyond the self” (p. 12). One-third of responses fall into the self-orientation category where security, employment, and the call to vocation, and faith were pervasive themes.

Authors

• Audrey Anne Friedman, Boston College

• John Schmitt, Boston College