Mapping the Journey: Exploring Youth Purpose Using a Visual Qualitative Method

Abstract

Youth purpose is a critical developmental asset linked to well-being, academic engagement, and vocational success. However, traditional assessments often fail to capture its complexity. This study introduces an innovative qualitative approach that combines semi-structured interviews with visual mapping to help adolescent participants articulate their journey toward purpose development. Thirty-eight diverse high school students participated in creating visual maps to illustrate their personal paths toward finding purpose. Results revealed three salient themes: (1) chronology, with the road map serving as a way to depict purpose development across time, (2) the common shapes of purpose paths, revealing insights into the developmental experience of purpose, and (3) complementary enhancements, with the visual maps enriching the interviews. This approach offers a rich understanding of how meaningful relationships and formative experiences shape adolescents’ purpose development and highlights the potential of visual methods to capture these complex processes. We discuss practical applications for educational and counseling interventions aimed at cultivating youth purpose.

1. Introduction

Youth purpose has been defined as the “feeling that one’s life is directed and significant,” paired with a desire to contribute to the world beyond oneself (Damon et al., 2003; P. L. Hill & Burrow, 2021, p. 281). More specifically, purpose typically includes three elements: (a) an aspiration toward future-oriented, personally meaningful goals, (b) an active engagement with one’s aspiration, as indicated by committed time, energy, or resources, and (c) an intention to contribute to the broader world (Damon, 2008; Damon et al., 2003). Theory and research suggest that adolescence and emerging adulthood are critical periods for purpose formation, as youth engage in identity exploration and develop cognitive capacities to consider possible selves and grapple with abstract ideas such as one’s values (Sumner et al., 2015). Moreover, the broader context affords young people numerous opportunities to explore purposeful pathways whether through intentional, proactive engagement (e.g., completing a service project aligned with one’s interests), reactive processes in response to adverse events, or through social learning by observing role models and receiving mentorship (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009). Cumulatively, this literature highlights numerous paths to purpose, a critical developmental asset.

Indeed, having purpose affords youth many benefits. A growing body of literature suggests that purpose is a major contributor to thriving and flourishing for youth (e.g., Benson, 2006; Bundick et al., 2010; Colby, 2020), including higher self-esteem (Blattner et al., 2013), hope (Burrow et al., 2010), and happiness (Kiang, 2012). It is also associated with improved physical health (e.g., P. L. Hill & Turiano, 2014; Turner et al., 2017). Furthermore, purpose is linked to positive academic and career outcomes, specifically: academic engagement, goal-setting abilities, and improved GPA (Liang et al., 2016a; Klein et al., 2019). Purpose-based interventions like the MPOWER program, which uses a curriculum and counseling framework centered on the “4 Ps” of purpose (people, passion, propensity, and prosocial benefits) to boost academic engagement, have shown that cultivating a “beyond-the-self” purpose can reduce performance-avoidance behaviors and foster resilience, preparing students for both academic and vocational success (Liang & Klein, 2022; Klein et al., 2019). These findings support the role of purpose in promoting both personal well-being and vocational success.

Understanding and expressing purpose can be difficult at any age due to its abstract and future-oriented nature. Although this challenge may be especially apparent in adolescence—a developmental period often marked by identity exploration and expanding cognitive capacities (Piaget, 1971)—it should not be construed as uniquely adolescent. Nevertheless, important questions remain about how purpose develops over time, particularly during critical developmental periods of human development, such as adolescence (Burrow et al., 2018).

Much of the existing work relies on quantitative measures, but questions remain regarding the validity and developmental appropriateness of these tools (Burrow et al., 2018). These tools often fail to consider developmental periods, diverse paths, and other individual differences among youth, highlighting the need for more refined, developmentally appropriate, and context-sensitive assessments. Relatedly, Ludlow et al. (2022) highlight opportunities to further refine purpose assessment tools, noting that while the Claremont Purpose Scale (CPS) (Bronk et al., 2018) provides a strong foundation for measuring purpose, there is room to enhance its score interpretation and response options to better distinguish between different dimensions of purpose. These refinements could increase the scale’s utility in capturing the developmental nuances of youth purpose.

Likewise, there have been recent calls for alternative methods of measuring youth purpose that better reflect their capacity to self-reflect on their purpose development. For example, P. L. Hill and Burrow (2021) argue that adolescents are more purposeful than current research suggests, as studies often focus on whether individuals can articulate a specific purpose rather than simply feeling a sense of it. The authors emphasize the difference between a “sense of purpose”—a general feeling that one’s life has direction—and “purpose content and articulation,” which involves specifying and explaining one’s aims (P. L. Hill & Burrow, 2021, p. 281). As a result, the low prevalence of purpose reported among adolescents may stem from the overuse of tools that focus too much on whether young people can clearly define their purpose, rather than recognizing that they are often still exploring their interests. Similarly, recent work by Liang and Klein (2022) argues that what is most important is that adolescents feel a personal intention to contribute to the world in a meaningful way, even if they are not yet able to fully articulate their specific goals.

Furthermore, current methods of measuring purpose, which often require individuals to articulate specific aims and then classify individuals as either having or lacking purpose, can be particularly exclusionary of marginalized youth. Such methods tend to privilege conventional, often career-oriented criteria, which may not reflect the diverse ways young people experience purpose (P. L. Hill & Burrow, 2021). For instance, Liang et al. (2017) found that Guatemalan adolescents frequently described purpose in terms of family responsibility, such as providing care and support for relatives. Although this may not align with Western, individualistic notions of purpose, which often center on career or personal achievement, it nonetheless reflects a deeply meaningful orientation toward contributing to the well-being of others. Without culturally sensitive approaches, rigid definitions risk overlooking these forms of purpose and unfairly categorizing such youth as lacking purpose (Liang et al., 2017; P. L. Hill & Burrow, 2021). To address these concerns, more innovative and inclusive techniques are needed to capture young people’s purpose and diverse pathways to purpose.

More recently, qualitative research addressed some of these concerns by capturing a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of youths’ experiences of purpose and supplementing quantitative research findings (e.g., Liang et al., 2017). Experts assert that qualitative methods are particularly well-suited for exploring purpose as they allow for the examination of a wide variety of topics and perspectives (Duckworth et al., 2005). Interviewing—the most widely used approach in qualitative research (Polkinghorne, 2005)—has become the primary qualitative method used in studies of purpose. For example, researchers have studied meaning-making and factors promoting purpose development through interviews that examine a variety of topics (e.g., Davis et al., 1998; White et al., 2021; Moran, 2014).

Interviewing (e.g., structured, semi-structured, and unstructured) typically involves gathering data from respondents by asking questions to elicit verbal responses. Skilled interviewers are able to support respondents in providing rich, detailed, and inclusive accounts of their experiences. For example, through in-depth interviews, Liang et al. (2016b) were able to examine how youths’ unique social contexts and intrinsic motivations contributed to their experiences of purpose. Through these interviews, they found four interrelated themes related to the development of youth purpose: people (i.e., supportive relationships), propensity (i.e., relevant skills and traits), passion (i.e., a strong interest), and prosocial benefits (i.e., a desire to help others).

Despite their utility, qualitative interviews have faced criticism for offering only initial reflections of participants, rather than providing a deeper exploration of their lived experiences (Bagnoli, 2009; Futch & Fine, 2014). Conducting interviews over multiple sessions and across time can enhance the depth of data collected, but this is not always feasible due to limited access to participants. As Moran (2014) argues, there is a need for studies that examine how individual youths’ definitions of purpose develop over time, including how different definitional dimensions affect each other and whether the timing or sequence of experiences matters.

In addition to concerns about the depth of interviews, they may not always be the most appropriate method for exploring certain concepts, particularly those that are abstract or complex, such as purpose. Younger individuals, still developing their abstract reasoning abilities, may find it difficult to articulate concepts like purpose (Dumontheil, 2014; Piaget, 1971). Furthermore, youth may experience social discomfort when required to speak face-to-face with adults, particularly in formal interview settings, which can inhibit the richness of the data collected. Research in fields such as counseling has shown that youth often struggle to express themselves verbally and may prefer visual forms of communication (Bell, 2011). Similarly, several researchers have noted the difficulties involved in engaging adolescents in qualitative interviewing, with adolescents initially appearing withdrawn and distrustful during interviews, expecting an uncomfortable experience similar to being interrogated by adults (Briks, 2007; Goodwin et al., 2023).

1.1. Visual Methods in Qualitative Research

Visual methods in qualitative research have the potential to meet the developmental needs of young participants by offering an alternative form of self-expression and storytelling that may capture important, non-verbal aspects of young people’s experiences (Olmo-Extremera et al., 2024). Visual methods in qualitative research draw from a variety of strategies beyond purely verbal responses, such as the use of artwork, photography, pictures, drawings, or diagrams to express their experiences and responses to interview questions. Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in the use of visual methods in social science research, including psychology, to explore participant experiences and meaning-making (Reavey, 2020). These studies are based on the premise that not all knowledge or lived experience of participants can be reduced to spoken or written language. Visual images often communicate what words cannot because they allow for access to different levels of consciousness. For example, Bagnoli (2009) found that the self-portraits she asked young people to draw had a “‘condensing’ quality that could narrate complex stories about their plans, dreams, dilemmas, and emotions” (p. 551).

One way to enhance some of the shortcomings of qualitative interviews is to pair interviews with visual methods (e.g., Berends, 2011; Copeland & Agosto, 2012; Xie & Liang, 2022), as the combination of these approaches has been shown to provide a more holistic study of human experiences. Moreover, these two methods complement each other, as interviews alone tend to be too factual in recounting experiences and visual methods alone can be somewhat decontextualized. Existing research demonstrates that pairing visual methods with interviews has the potential to enhance interviews in the following ways: (1) breaking the ice and establishing rapport; (2) prompting memory; (3) improving the flow and content of interviews; (4) creating a shared understanding between the researcher and the participant; (5) increasing the accuracy and completeness of shared information; and (6) uncovering previously not considered dimensions of the experiences being researched (Bagnoli, 2009; Reavey, 2020; Goodwin et al., 2023; Harper, 2002).

In particular, visual methods are gaining popularity when it comes to research involving the experiences of children and adolescents, as past research has consistently demonstrated that visual methods in qualitative research can help young participants express their experiences more fully than verbal methods by fostering engagement, capturing the complexity and richness of their developmental experiences, providing multiple avenues for creative expression, addressing power imbalances between researchers and participants, facilitating conversations about sensitive topics, and promoting self-understanding (Drew et al., 2010; Goodwin et al., 2023; Mannay et al., 2017; Vindrola-Padros et al., 2016). For example, Bagnoli (2009) used a series of three visual methods (self-portraits, relationship maps, and timelines) with young people and found that they were engaging and tended to encourage more participation than a standard interview. Relatedly, Bagnoli (2009) found that the creative tasks sustained the interest and attention of the young people in her studies. Furthermore, the visual methods were found to be more relevant to the young people’s style of expression, especially when they were having difficulty expressing themselves with words.

Similarly, in a study examining the benefits and drawbacks of using visual methods (e.g., photo-elicitation) when conducting research with youth, Drew et al. (2010) found that visual storytelling (1) attracted participants during recruitment and enhanced positive perceptions of the research, (2) was enjoyable for the participants, (3) fostered self-awareness; and (4), facilitated expression, communication, and concentration during interviews. Relatedly, some scholars argue that visual methods are considered more participatory than traditional interviewing approaches, as they have the potential to reduce hierarchies related to age, status, and research roles, enabling young participants to shape and co-create the research process (Drew et al., 2010; J. Hill, 2013; O’Kane, 2008). Additionally, visual methods are inherently flexible, offering various approaches and open-ended instructions, which caters to the diverse developmental needs of young participants, who are in the process of developing the cognitive abilities that allow them to think abstractly and self-reflect (Drew et al., 2010; Weller, 2012).

One such visual method is graphic elicitation—a drawing and arts-based form of visual methods research that tends to use diagrams and drawings, such as maps, matrices, and timelines, as a form of expression (Bagnoli, 2009). The diagrams and drawings can be created by the participant (to help with expression and data collection) or the researcher (to help with data collection or data analysis and interpretation) and represent anything from physical objects to intangible perceptions, impressions, and relationships (Umoquit et al., 2008; Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009).

Similarly to graphic elicitation, timelines are an effective way to help participants visually depict a life history in chronological order (Sheridan et al., 2011). They can focus on significant life events that have already occurred or provide a projection of events that will structure the future. The chronological nature of timelines helps with the recollection and sequencing of events, while also facilitating forward thinking. Timelines are particularly well-suited to capture changes over time, as well as the rapidly evolving developmental processes of youth. Indeed, they have been shown to be a useful technique for engaging young people in a reflection about their past and future selves, especially when paired with verbal interviewing, because of their interactive, adaptive nature and focus on time. They also represent a malleable and adaptive process that encourages young people to reflect on what they are sharing in real time (Sheridan et al., 2011).

Furthermore, extant research has revealed that using timelines alongside semi-structured interviews with youth can facilitate rapport building, engage participants in sensitive conversations, minimize power imbalances, and facilitate reflection on past experiences while envisioning future possibilities (Punjani et al., 2023). For example, research by Monico et al. (2020) on using timelines in qualitative studies of youth substance use revealed that using this visual tool (1) increased dialogue, responsiveness, and the level of detail provided by participants, (2) helped young participants convey the complexity and temporal context of significant or emotional experiences in their lives, and (3) enabled participants to make important connections between life events and identify factors that influenced their lives.

1.2. Metaphors in Qualitative Research

In addition to visual methods, alternative methods of data collection, such as the use of metaphors—a figure of speech replacing one idea or object with another to suggest an analogous relationship—can be used to capture the complexity of young people’s experiences (Carpenter, 2008). Metaphors allow ideas, topics, and experiences to be explored in new and varied ways and can serve as a powerful strategy for portraying complex realities (Carpenter, 2008). Furthermore, they can help to clarify and broaden understanding of less familiar concepts by illuminating aspects of experiences, ideas, or feelings not previously noticed and adding depth of meaning.

Metaphors can be introduced spontaneously by research participants to help express themselves, but they can also be introduced formally by researchers to provide a framework that might help participants better express themselves and provide consistency across participants for the data analysis (Carpenter, 2008). In this study, we provided the participants with the metaphor of a “road map” to help facilitate their expression of their understanding and experience with the development of their purpose. The map was designed to help participants identify their purpose “stories” by connecting the dots between their future (their aspirations) through the present (what they are currently engaged in) and past (formative experiences and relationships that inspire their aspirations) (Liang & Klein, 2022). This process is designed to aid in the articulation of important people, events, and experiences that shaped their aspired future and current actions.

1.3. Present Study

This study used an exemplar sampling method to recruit 38 youth identified by school counselors as having a strong sense of purpose for rich discussions about the development of their purpose. The youth participated in a semi-structured interview while drawing a roadmap of their journey toward purpose—a phenomenon that the adolescents likely had not spent a lot of time thinking about. We sought to explore how participants’ metaphorical and graphical timelines, paired with semi-structured interviews, facilitated youths’ understanding and articulation of the development of their purpose.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Participants

A sample of 38 racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse high school juniors (13 female, 25 male; median age = 17) attending a public, urban high school in the northeast participated in this study. High school juniors were selected because the junior year is a critical time for student reflection on future goals, and by this time, adolescents tend to have a clearer and more realistic perspective of their developing aspirations than their younger peers (Malin et al., 2014). Moreover, by this point, students are more likely to have developed the cognitive abilities to consider questions and concepts related to their purpose (Bronk, 2012; Bronk et al., 2018) but may be unable to fully articulate those aspirations. These adolescent students may benefit, in particular, from novel assessment techniques that support and scaffold their articulation of purpose.

Students from this high school were selected due to a longstanding research-practice partnership between high school administrators, staff, students, and researchers from two local universities. The research-practice partnership includes multiple goals, including both research and practice-oriented aims: bolstering the literature on purpose and its correlates, understanding and reducing the achievement gap observed in the student body, and improving the school’s efforts to facilitate purpose development.

As part of an exemplar method of data collection (Bronk, 2012), the high school’s school counselors nominated purposeful students to participate in this study according to criteria established by Damon et al. (2003): (1) an enduring, long-term goal or purpose and (2) a sustained engagement in the pursuit of that goal. That is, students were selected to participate if they met both of these criteria because they exemplified a longstanding aspiration that was personally meaningful and intended to contribute to others, and they were actively engaged in activities related to this aspiration. Focusing on people who exemplify the phenomenon of interest (i.e., highly purposeful youth) can be a helpful method for better understanding how purpose develops (Bronk, 2012). This particular high school houses both a traditional and vocational high school and school counselors from the traditional high school selected 25 students, while 13 were chosen from the vocational high school. Over half (55%) of participants were students of color, representing Hispanic, African American, Black, and Asian American backgrounds.

2.2. Procedure

Semi-structured (Seidman, 1991), in-depth (Johnson, 2002) interviews paired with visual timelines were conducted at the youths’ high school in private offices and classrooms over two full school days. Sessions lasted approximately 45 to 50 min. Interviewers were graduate research assistants affiliated with the research practice partnership who received extensive training on the interview protocol and timelining method before data collection. Interviews were audio recorded with permission granted by participants, and participants were given pseudonyms to protect their anonymity. All audio files were stored on a secure university server and the timelines were stored in the second author’s locked office cabinet. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards at the institutions of both primary investigators. As part of the larger research-practice partnership and ongoing study, parents of participants provided passive consent, and students provided written assent prior to interview completion.

Following guidelines for best practices in qualitative methods (e.g., Jacob & Furgerson, 2012), interviewers were encouraged to follow participants’ leads with respect to how they engaged with the creation of their road map. For example, though prompted to start in the future, students were allowed to begin drawing their road map at any point in time. Interviewers were coached to follow their lead and to respect participants’ creative process. Additionally, the “road map” metaphor was introduced as a tool that could make the timelining activity easier for participants. As a continuation of the road metaphor, interviewers offered students seven types of stickers (gas station, GPS/compass, repair shop, construction, detour, rest area, and restaurant) as a concrete way to articulate the role that significant people and events played in their purpose journeys. Each sticker was assigned a metaphorical meaning. For example, a gas station represented someone or an event that propelled them forward, a GPS/compass symbolized guidance and clearer direction, a repair shop stood for support in overcoming adversity, a construction site signified skill-building or learning, a detour marked a shift in direction, a rest area offered respite or comfort, and a restaurant symbolized encouragement and nourishment.

At the beginning of the interview, participants were given a legal-sized sheet of blank paper for their visual maps, pencils, a key with icon pictures and their definitions, and the corresponding stickers. Interviewers were coached to let students use the map as much or as little as they found helpful for the process. Upon completion of data collection, the visual maps were scanned and uploaded to a secure server for storage. To illustrate the visual mapping activity, we provide a sample participant road map (Figure 1).

2.3. Oral Interview

Semi-structured interviews were informed by youth purpose research (Bronk et al., 2004; Liang et al., 2016a). Like the road map timelines, the interviews started by asking participants about their future aspirations and moved backward chronologically to explore sources of inspiration for these future aspirations. As an example, in the future portion of the interview, researchers broadly inquired about where the students believed they were going in life, why they were going there, how they figured out where they were going, and how they thought they might get there. Follow-up questions were based on previous research on the characteristics and influences of youth purpose development (Liang et al., 2017) and included, “Why is this path/journey important to you?,” “Who are the people or what experiences that helped you determine your path/journey?,” and “Are there certain people or experiences who may help you get where you are going or who may get in your way?”

In the “present” portion of the interview, researchers asked students about their positions in relation to their path/journey, what things were most important to them at that moment, what strengths they possessed that would help them on this journey, and what significant people or recent experiences were impacting their path/journey. Probing questions in these areas included, “Why are these goals important to you right now?” “What are your strengths and how will they help you on your journey/pathway?” “What role do the important people in your life play on your current journey toward your purpose?” (Liang et al., 2017).

In the “past” portion (one year, two years, and further back), researchers asked participants to reflect on how their journey began. Questions covered what strengths helped them get on their current path/journey, what important people helped them reach their current state, and what significant experiences contributed to their journey. Follow-up questions were similar to those in the present-time portion, such as, “What were your strengths one year ago? Five years ago?” and “What role did important people play in your life a year ago?”

2.4. Analysis

To analyze the visual data, we employed multiple techniques. First, we used “concept counting,” to calculate how frequently key concepts appeared (Turns et al., 2000). We also analyzed the shape and construction of maps, noting thematic similarities across participants (Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009). Semi-structured interviews and road maps were initially coded separately. The maps were analyzed for content themes and design features. This separate coding process allowed for a thorough understanding of each data set before examining their relationships.

Following initial coding, we alternated between interviews and maps to identify emergent themes (Butler-Kisber & Poldma, 2010). Researchers noted how maps provided clues useful for “texturizing” participants’ interviews (Futch & Fine, 2014, p. 48). Special attention was paid to areas of the transcripts that elaborated on details depicted in the visual maps and vice versa. While some may argue that this flexibility poses a risk to study rigor, we ensured that our methods were responsive to the participants’ visual creations, as is typical in this type of analysis (Wheeldon & Faubert, 2009). After repeated reviews of the road maps and interviews, three major themes emerged through discussions among coders.

3. Results

Before analyzing the 38 interviews with roadmaps for methodological themes, we observed how the students used the visual timelines and road map metaphor to convey their understanding of their purpose development. All participants chose to create a visual timeline, reflecting on academic, vocational, and broader life goals. The road map metaphor and icon stickers helped participants clarify their thoughts and express complex ideas more effectively than words alone. After this initial observation, we conducted an analysis of how these visual and verbal methods worked together to provide insight into youth purpose development. Three major themes emerged: (a) chronology, with the road map serving as an organizing structure to illustrate purpose across time; (b) shape, with the road map providing unique insight into the developmental experience of purpose; and (c) complementary enhancements, with the road map enriching the information provided in the interview.

3.1. Chronology

Although participants each had their unique definition of purpose, the chronology of events along their journeys was clearly depicted in over a third of the visual maps. Specifically, many students separated their road maps into “past,” “present,” and “future.” Others organized their experiences using similar systems, such as ordering events by chronological age or academic year. In addition, unplanned or serendipitous experiences played a significant role in shaping purpose development for some participants, revealing how youth can discover new purpose through unexpected events. Overall, it was clear that the use of maps allowed students to visually trace their purpose development over time and plot their future development by noting significant people and experiences across each period of life.

3.1.1. Past

Several participants mapped significant people and events that previously impacted their purpose, mostly throughout childhood, in a section labeled “Past.” For example, one student, Neil, mapped a close family member who served as a role model for his purpose: “During my childhood, I wanted to help others, like my father, who’s a nurse.” His map reflected how this early exposure to a helping profession informed his early aspirations. Similarly, Myles noted an influential teacher on his map who “sparked [his] interest in language” and helped him realize his ambition to become a world language teacher:

Before, I was interested in language, but then I had a teacher who really helped further spark my interest, and I came to realize that I want to be that person for other people.

Although Myles had an idea of what he wanted to pursue professionally, a teacher from his past played a prominent role in encouraging him to pursue this specific direction.

Other participants discovered their purpose through early life experiences that left a lasting impression. Often, these experiences were happenstance, occurring through trial and error. For example, Daniel discovered his fascination with the hospitality industry during a trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was struck by the culture: “I saw the managers, everyone was having fun, no one seemed bored, everyone was happy, running around, you know, just seems like a fun environment.” This chance encounter ultimately gave him insight into his potential purpose. This example illustrates how unplanned experiences can serve as catalysts for purpose development, as they introduce youth to new possibilities and inspire them to explore career paths they may not have considered before.

For example, Neil described an epiphany: “When I was 11, I realized being a doctor wasn’t for me, ‘cause I switched from being a doctor to wanting to be something with sports and basketball, which I had experienced doing every day.” Thus, study participants described a variety of historical influences and outcomes related to their current aspirations.

Another example of past influence on purpose was seen in Amy’s map, which illustrated how her mother provided her with guidance to pursue a new purpose at a critical time in her life: “When we started talking about college… I had no idea what I wanted to do. She told me to get into the nursing field and helped me figure out which kind of nurse I want to be.” Similarly, Daniel included a role model on his map who guided him toward his purpose by imparting key values: “[My role model] always taught me how to be efficient and, you know, get your work done and everything, and always have good work ethic. [My role model] taught me a good fundamental way—how to be a good human, you could say.” Daniel’s map showed that he later applied these core values toward his pursuit of his purpose, going on to explore his interests in hospitality and networking with other people.

3.1.2. Present

After mapping their childhood experiences and relationships that molded their paths to purpose, participants illustrated what they were currently doing to pursue their ambitions. Multiple students depicted their involvement in academic activities visually and then discussed them verbally, focusing on achieving satisfactory grades, graduating, and beginning postsecondary education. For example, Daniel explained: “My purpose as of right now, you know, is to continue and finish school. I’ve now one more year left. I’m a junior here now.” Similarly, Amy depicted current academic goals on her map, and she included a financial aspect: “…saving up enough money to go to college, to afford college, finding a college that will accept me.” Many participants viewed graduating from high school as a necessary step toward advancing their purpose journey (e.g., college, career aspirations).

Participants also illustrated extracurricular activities that contributed to their purpose. For example, Daniel described his part-time job at a restaurant: “I like going to work. I like, you know, building relationships, references, meeting new people, going into the real-world experience.” He spoke proudly about his choice to actively engage in a part-time profession, making connections and gaining experience related to his long-term aspiration of working in hospitality. Similarly, Xavier’s map showed that he was preparing for his future profession by taking part in a youth development program, which offered students opportunities to gain extracurricular experience in the business field: “It’s extremely helpful. And so I’m in this entrepreneurship… Right now, we actually get to work with a real company.” Xavier described his purpose as helping other people with programs like this one, demonstrating the links between his present experiences and his ultimate purpose.

3.1.3. Future

In the “Future” sections of their maps (often to the far right of the page), participants depicted their long-term aims, such as pursuing specific careers or personal aspirations. Several participants illustrated clear, concrete ideas on their maps of their next steps to achieve their purpose. For example, Amy drew symbols for college and radiology. In her verbal interview, she described her future plans:

I want to at least be in a four-year university, and then, I want to be studying radiology. I think by then, I’ll be in my last year of college in five years, so I’m going to at least have a sense of where I’m going to work.

Meanwhile, Daniel drew symbols for his ideal future career and geographical location. He described these symbols: “I want to be like, a manager of a resort somewhere, or a hotel. So I’d like to do that in New York, maybe a major tourism spot. It just seems like a fun career option.” Indeed, the maps offered participants a creative, visual way to process and evaluate how to achieve their long-term goals, as well as how far away they were from these goals at the time of the study.

Some participants also illustrated home or family-oriented vocational aspirations. For example, Aditi, drew stick figures and a home in her “Future” section, describing them in her verbal interview this way: “In the future, I want to have children, too. So, stick figures… Oh, and I want to have my own house or apartment or something.” Tera portrayed similar aspirations toward the end of her map: “I also want my own family. Even though I’m young, I would love my own family.” The maps provided participants with a visual and verbal means to explore a range of purposes, from academic and occupational goals to social and familial aspirations. For example, Andrew reflected on how his past struggles shaped his positive future purpose:

I thought about being some sort of social worker, like a DCF-type guy. They were involved in my life as a child, so I figure, if can help kids like they helped me…I was a troubled kid, so I know how to help troubled kids.

Andrew’s reflection demonstrated how mapping his purpose allowed him to integrate his past challenges with his positive future goals. The visual, flexible process of creating these maps helped participants make meaningful connections between their past, present, and future.

3.1.4. Other Chronological Variations

Several participants ordered their paths to purpose chronologically on their maps but used different labels to describe their journeys. For example, Dev labeled his “Future” as “Engineer” and wrote “Internships” underneath, signifying that his purpose and career were intertwined. Dev explained: “I definitely want to, like, probably over the summer—not just waste my summer—probably do some kind of classes or an internship for something to do with engineering or business.” Similarly, Gopal and Hillary labeled the top left side of their paper with “Past” and the top right with “Future,” filling the space in between with depictions of current experiences and influential people.

Moreover, maps revealed participants’ varying degrees of clarity in envisioning their purpose journeys. Some divided their paths by stages, such as chronological ages, academic years, or key milestones. For example, Marco mapped his journey to becoming a “YouTube star,” starting with his interest in the industry during middle school, followed by current activities to pursue this goal, and culminating with his aim to make it a full-time profession after high school. Neil divided his map into childhood (ages 5–10), early teens (ages 11–13), and age 14-present. In contrast, some participants were unsure of their ultimate purpose, leaving their maps unfinished or branching off in multiple directions. For example, Dev reflected:

I realized that being a doctor wasn’t for me because I didn’t know what it was all about. So from 11–13, I was enamored by basically TV and seeing all these people play and I thought I wanted to become a basketball player or coach. But eventually, I realized that wouldn’t fulfill my goal of helping others.

These visual activities allowed participants to process both the time and practical steps needed to pursue their purpose while leaving room for reconsideration and exploration.

3.2. Shape of Purpose Path

A distinct feature of the maps was how participants visualized the shape of their paths to purpose. Participants generally communicated their journeys in one of three ways: a straight path, a winding path, or a split path. Each shape offered insight into how youth conceptualized their purpose development and how they navigated challenges or choices along the way.

3.2.1. Straight Path

Participants who drew straight paths saw their journey as a clear, focused progression from their present state to their long-term goal. These participants often lacked ambivalence and expressed a strong purpose. For example, Dev explained how he became drawn to engineering after his uncle suggested the field: “‘[My uncle said] so maybe, like, in the future you might want to do that.’ So I kept that in the back of my head.” Similarly, Ashley mapped her path toward becoming an electrician with clear, specific steps, such as gaining apprenticeship hours: “Right after high school, I’m hoping to get an apprenticeship under a master electrician, to get my hours because I need 1200 h in the field and in classroom.” Participants with straight paths had already reflected extensively on their future, often surrounding themselves with people and resources that supported their purpose. A sample straight path is shown in Figure 2, illustrating a clear, linear progression from present to future goals.

A narrow focus and commitment to a specific area also appeared in the maps of participants like Steven, who described himself as an avid fan of baseball and wanted to pursue a baseball-related career:

I still have, like the biggest interest in the sport. I want to continue down that path—whether it’s playing, coaching, or broadcasting. My ultimate goal is broadcasting.

Even though Steven considered various roles, his focus on baseball remained steady. Participants who illustrated a straight path were intentional about their present actions and how they aligned with their long-term goals. As a result, they often created environments conducive to achieving their purpose by surrounding themselves with supportive people and resources.

3.2.2. Winding Path

Winding paths reflected participants’ experiences of obstacles or challenges along the way. These participants often spoke of trials, errors, and changes in direction as they refined their purpose. For example, Martin described his early attempts at skateboarding, saying “I tried but realized it wasn’t for me, so I shifted to photography.” Winding paths represented not only challenges but also moments of reflective discovery and redirection. These participants used setbacks to clarify their purpose and realign it with their skills and interests.

Andrea drew a winding road to highlight the obstacles she faced, such as depression and the language barrier after moving to the U.S.: “It took me forever to get it. People made fun of me… it just wasn’t a good time.” Despite these difficulties, Andrea used her experiences as a source of growth, eventually finding direction in her personal and academic journey.

Other participants, like Kayla, lined their winding paths to experiences of marginalization. Kayla described the absence of a Black Student Union at her school and the lack of representation among the faculty: “We actually don’t have one [a Black Student Union], even though we have a 25% Black population here. Most of the teachers are White.” For Kayla, these challenges created a winding path as she sought spaces where she felt seen and understood. Similarly, Myles tied his winding road to the desire for more inclusive spaces:

Being surrounded by people who have a similar ideology than you, who see the world in a similar way, who feel the same way about issues, about people being mistreated. It’s nice to know that you’re not the only one who sees this and thinks that it’s wrong. Which is what I felt like a lot of the time, outside of the GSA (Gay Straight Alliance).

In these cases, the winding paths symbolized the participants’ struggles with identity and belonging, but also their determination to find or create supportive communities. Overall, participants who drew winding paths used the visual tool to reflect on their experiences of growth, setbacks, and redirection. These paths showed that obstacles did not derail their purpose, but instead, helped them gain clarity and resilience as they moved forward. Figure 3 presents a sample winding path, highlighting challenges, redirections, and gradual refinement of purpose.

3.2.3. Split

Participants who drew split paths illustrated internal conflicts or multiple possible directions they could take in pursuing their purpose. These participants often described a sense of ambivalence, leaving room for various potential outcomes. For example, Neil explained his indecision: “There’s a lot of different paths I can go through that can help me achieve my purpose to help others.” Similarly, Priya expressed her desire to explore different possibilities without committing to a single path:

I just want to explore. I do not know exactly what that encompasses, but I just want to explore… I just want to explore. That’s a goal in itself.

Using the split path helped participants visually capture their uncertainty, allowing them to reflect on different potential outcomes. Jamel, for instance, described two possible future directions on his map: working for an electric services company or going to college, although he viewed the latter option more negatively: “Probably just would’ve gone to the high school or gone to a four-year college. I would’ve been in debt and still not have figured out what I wanted to do.” Jamel’s split path allowed him to compare these alternative options, which helped him justify his current decision to pursue a career in electrical work.

Several participants elaborated on their maps during the interviews, using visual representation to clarify their feelings of ambivalence. For example, Robert reflected on whether he wanted to attend college:

I would go two years at [redacted] Community College, and then transfer two years… then four years anywhere else… Yeah. It’s, like, I’ve been in school for eleven years now. I don’t know if I really want to go to six more years of school.

For Robert and others, drawing a split path allowed them to process conflicting desires and external pressures, while leaving space to explore how each option could unfold. Through the split paths, participants were able to represent and engage with internal or external conflicts as part of their journey toward purpose. The visual maps provided them with a framework for reflecting on multiple directions and developing a deeper sense of self-awareness about the choices ahead of them. A sample split path is shown in Figure 4, reflecting ambivalence and exploration of multiple possible futures.

3.3. Complementary Enhancements

The visual mapping tool proved to be highly complementary to the verbal interviews, providing participants with a means to elaborate on their ideas of purpose through both illustration and conversation. The maps allowed participants to explore different options, directions, and decisions in their lives, helping them to clarify complex, interconnected choices and identify key influences on their journey.

Participants frequently visualized not only their academic and career goals but broader life ambitions, such as starting a family or building relationships. The stickers provided during the mapping exercise served as valuable tools for identifying key influences, and students frequently elaborated on these visual elements during the interviews. For instance, Steven used the gas station sticker to represent his father’s encouragement to pursue baseball, and the diner sticker to illustrate the social influences of his friends.

Many participants explicitly acknowledged how the visual mapping exercise helped them organize their thoughts. Kayla reflected, “The map really helped me organize my thoughts. It’s stuff I’ve known but never really put into words before.” This sentiment was echoed by other participants who found that the combination of visual and verbal methods allowed them to concretely explore abstract concepts like purpose.

In nearly all cases, significant people appeared in both the visual maps and the verbal interviews, allowing participants to make meaningful connections between the two methods. Jamel, for example, wrote on his map that his “dad pushed me in this direction” toward his side road titled “specifically electrical engineering.” During the interview, he elaborated on how his father encouraged him to pursue this career by pointing out his interests and strengths Similarly, Dev used the “GPS” sticker to symbolize his sixth-grade teacher, who provided early guidance and direction toward his future aspirations in engineering.

Other participants highlighted similar influences from teachers, peers, and family members. For example, Alex referred to one of his favorite teachers, who regularly checked in with him about his academic plans:

She’d be like, ‘Hey, what classes are you signing up for next year?’ I would tell her and she would be like, ‘Okay, yeah, that sounds good. I think you should be a scientist or an engineer,’ or something like that. Hearing that from her, because she was one of my favorite teachers, kind of really got the thought into my head.

The way Alex internalized this feedback was visible on his visual map, where he consistently sought out experiences that aligned with his long-term goal of becoming a chemical engineer. Together, the map and interview provided a cohesive narrative of his purpose development.

Similarly, Daniel used stickers to represent his teachers at different points on his timeline (i.e., road). For one teacher in particular, Daniel was motivated by the way she regularly “checked in” with him when his grades began to decline: “My past few vocab quizzes, they haven’t been as strong as the ones I usually take. So [my teacher’s] been, you know, talking to me about, ‘Oh, what’s been going on?’ You know? So always keeping me on track.” For Daniel, this feedback served as a reminder of his previous success and encouraged him to refocus on his long-term goal of attending college.

Dev frequently received affirmations from his 6th grade teacher. He vividly recalled a moment at his graduation when his teacher told his parents: “‘Your kid’s on track to become, like, a future engineer.’” Dev, who then relied on course grades to validate his purpose, found his teacher’s encouragement to be equally validating. To represent this important figure, he used the “GPS” sticker on his map, symbolizing the guidance she had provided. Reflecting on his journey, Dev noted, “I remember that class very clearly because it was, like, one of my favorite classes.”

Shared Activity

In addition to the affirmation and guidance they received, participants described the importance of shared activities with influential people in their lives. These activities were often related to pursuing aspirations or purpose and went beyond mere advice, involving active participation and engagement. For example, Martin shared how his father supported his interests in photography, even though his father wasn’t familiar with the field: my dad isn’t a photographer at all, so I would basically self-teach myself photography. And then I started going with my dad on, like, video shoots and shooting photos.” Martin highlighted this shared experience with his father by writing the name of a local candy company on his map. During the interview, he elaborated that he had accompanied his father on a commercial video shoot for the company, where he took photo stills that were eventually used in an advertisement. Kayla described a similar experience of receiving support from her guidance counselor, who actively helped her bring an idea to life:

He stepped up to be our advisor, and he’s helping us with the entire process of forming the Black Student Union. It was an idea I had ever since freshman year, but ever since he got here, it’s been coming into reality.

Participants also valued the possibility of future collaboration with people who could help them achieve their purpose. Vikram, for example, talked about how his cousin, who is in the medical field, offered her support: “She said if I wanted to switch to medical stuff, she would help me a lot with actually studying.” Similarly, Sophia felt encouraged to apply to college because of the consistent support she received from her older cousins: “if I don’t know something, like, for my college essays, they said they were going to help me with it.” These examples demonstrate that having someone actively involved in their journey, whether through shared activities or future support, made participants feel more capable and motivated to pursue their goals.

Through the visual maps, participants were also able to connect past, current, and future influences, sometimes illustrating how different people played key roles at various stages. Hillary, for example, used several stickers to represent the people who encouraged her throughout her life as she worked toward her goal of becoming a nurse: She reflected: “pretty much everyone I’ve told about it, they said, yeah, they can see me as a nurse.” The stickers ascended in a linear fashion toward her goal of becoming a nurse, visually illustrating the cumulative encouragement she received over time. Participants consistently highlighted how important it was for the people in their lives to offer not just advice but also time, collaboration, and engagement in meaningful activities. These shared experiences provided critical support as participants navigated their purpose development and helped them solidify their goals.

4. Discussion

This study explored youth purpose development using a novel visual qualitative method that combined semi-structured interviews with visual road maps and timelines. Our findings revealed three key themes: (1) the role of significant relationships in shaping purpose, (2) the use of chronological sequencing to understand purpose development over time, and (3) the unique progression of participants’ purpose journeys represented visually through different map shapes. These findings emphasize the utility of visual methods in capturing the complexities of youth purpose development, providing a nuanced understanding that might be overlooked by conventional qualitative or quantitative approaches.

The visual road maps enabled participants to detail their purpose development journeys by clearly identifying the influence of key individuals, important life events, and the temporal nature of their experiences. Consistent with extant research utilizing visual timelines to supplement their interviews with youth (e.g., Bagnoli, 2009; Monico et al., 2020; Punjani et al., 2023; Sheridan et al., 2011), the chronological sequencing provided a coherent structure for participants to recall past experiences and envision future possibilities. This not only facilitated a richer understanding of their purpose development but also provided insight into the dynamic nature of purpose as shaped by both anticipated and unplanned events. These findings align with existing theoretical work (e.g., Kashdan & McKnight, 2009) that outlines three pathways to purpose: the proactive process, which involves ongoing effort and gradual refinement; the reactive process, where life-changing events bring clarity to one’s purpose; and the social learning process, during which purpose develops through observing and imitating others.

In line with existing research supporting the use of metaphors in qualitative interviews to provide structure to data, reinterpret familiar processes, identify situation-specific interventions, and evoke emotion (e.g., Carpenter, 2008), the road map metaphor served as a powerful tool to help adolescents conceptualize and articulate their experiences in ways that might not be possible through traditional methods. For example, the use of both metaphors and timelines provided multiple entry points for participants to explore and explain their purpose journeys, creating richer and more detailed accounts of their developmental trajectories. This combination simultaneously encouraged reflection while helping youth participants organize complex experiences into coherent narratives.

The visual depiction of different paths—straight, winding, and split—illustrated how adolescent participants conceptualized their journeys to purpose. Straight paths signified a clear and focused goal, winding paths represented challenges and redirections, and split paths reflected ambivalence and the exploration of multiple possibilities. These visual representations provide qualitative evidence that purpose is not static but evolves through engagement with experiences and relationships, reinforcing the idea of purpose as an ever-evolving developmental process. These depictions align with the proactive and reactive pathways to purpose outlined by Kashdan and McKnight (2009). Participants who described winding journeys often spoke of adverse experiences, such as marginalization, which shaped their purpose, while those on straight paths highlighted the intentional pursuit of interests and goals through meaningful experiences, exemplifying a proactive path to purpose.

The use of visual mapping can also be understood through the lens of narrative identity theory, which emphasizes how individuals construct internalized and evolving life stories to integrate their past, present, and future (McAdams, 2011; McAdams & McLean, 2013). The straight, winding, and split paths described by participants resemble narrative forms through which adolescents externalize and organize their emerging sense of self and purpose. From this perspective, visual methods serve as a scaffold for narrative construction, enabling participants to draw out their purpose stories and engage in meaning-making processes that are central to identity development.

This form of narrative scaffolding aligns with recent calls for methods that reflect youth’s purpose journeys as a developmental process rather than solely assessing their ability to articulate a defined purpose (P. L. Hill & Burrow, 2021; Ludlow et al., 2022). By focusing on future intentions and overall orientation toward a purpose, rather than an end goal, the visual mapping technique helped to capture the evolving and exploratory nature of youth purpose. This methodology addresses critiques of existing purpose measures that often rigidly define purpose as having a specific career or job in mind, which can be exclusionary of those whose purpose is still evolving (e.g., young people, individuals whose paths are non-traditional) (P. L. Hill & Burrow, 2021).

Critically, our approach facilitated active reflection on purpose, which has been shown to be an important intervention in its own right (e.g., Burrow et al., 2018). We found that as participants engaged in the visual mapping process, they gained insight into their purpose—similar to how people often gain insight into what is personally meaningful when invited to share their stories (Liang & Klein, 2022). This demonstrates the value of using developmentally appropriate tools that allow participants to actively explore their purpose as an evolving process.

In this study, we sought to understand how visual mapping combined with semi-structured interviews could facilitate youth articulation of purpose development while simultaneously allowing for real-time reflection on the process of purpose development during the interview. Our findings demonstrate that the integration of visual and verbal methods supported participants in articulating their purpose, often bringing clarity to aspects they had not previously verbalized. For instance, using stickers to denote significant influences allowed participants to explicitly link these influences to pivotal life events, facilitating a depth of reflection that might not have emerged through interviews alone.

Our findings align with previous research highlighting the importance of relationships and significant experiences in shaping youth purpose (e.g., Konowitz et al., 2022; Liang et al., 2017; Lund et al., 2019). Students’ depictions of relationships also emphasize the role of social learning pathways in developing purpose (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009), with participants frequently citing the modeling and support of significant adults, such as mentors and parents, as sources of inspiration that sparked and illuminated their paths to purpose. Given these findings, we have reason to believe that visual mapping methods like this one may be particularly well-suited for exploring the influence of relationships on youth purpose development. For example, the use of visual tools, such as stickers, afforded our adolescent participants opportunities to directly place influential people in their purpose journeys and articulate the richness and impact of those relationships. This process facilitated active meaning-making—allowing participants to construct personal significance from their experiences—as well as enhanced our understanding of purpose narratives that are often missed by existing quantitative measures. Additionally, unlike traditional qualitative studies that rely heavily on verbal articulation, the use of visual maps in our study offered a more flexible and accessible way for adolescent participants to express abstract concepts like purpose.

4.1. Practical Implications

The current findings have direct implications for educational and counseling practices aimed at supporting youth purpose development. For example, the use of visual methods, such as road maps, can be integrated into school curricular counseling sessions to help students reflect on their aspirations and purpose. Educators and counselors can use these visual strategies as a way to support students in organizing their thoughts and deepening their self-knowledge, through making connections between their future aspirations, past experiences, and present actions. Moreover, the study highlights the critical role that meaningful relationships play in cultivating youth purpose. Practitioners would do well to help foster such relationships in students’ lives, connecting them with mentor figures who can help guide and nurture purpose development. Finally, the findings suggest that purpose is an evolving, dynamic process, rather than a destination or a fixed outcome. Practitioners can help design interventions that allow students to see that their purpose paths may involve setbacks, redirections, or multiple choices, so that they develop a sense of openness toward exploring different directions and a resilience when their journeys are winding and nonlinear.

4.2. Limitations

While our study offers valuable insights, several limitations must be acknowledged. First, regarding generalizability, the sample was drawn from a single public urban high school in the northeast, which may limit the generalizability of our findings. Youth from different cultural or socioeconomic backgrounds might interpret visual methods differently, and further research should explore how these tools can be adapted to ensure cultural responsiveness. Additionally, the study relied on the participants’ willingness and ability to engage with the visual mapping process, which may not be equally accessible or comfortable for all individuals.

Second, with respect to methodology, our study design also did not include an interview-only condition, which limits our ability to determine whether the visual mapping exercise uniquely facilitated insights beyond what interviews alone could provide. Future research should explicitly compare interview-only and combined visual-interview methods to clarify the added value of visual approaches.

Finally, with respect to developmental scope, although visual mapping is developmentally supportive for adolescents, difficulty articulating purpose is not unique to this age group. Adults also frequently struggle with the abstract nature of purpose. This suggests that visual methods may be beneficial across the lifespan, providing a scaffold for abstract reflection regardless of age. Future research should examine whether these methods hold promise for supporting purpose articulation beyond adolescence.

Future research should investigate the application of visual mapping across diverse populations and contexts to determine its broader utility. Combining visual methods with other innovative qualitative techniques, such as digital storytelling, could further enrich our understanding of youth purpose development. Additionally, longitudinal research employing visual methods could provide more comprehensive insights into how purpose evolves over time, particularly in response to changing social and environmental influences.

The findings of this study have significant implications for both theory and practice. The use of visual mapping methods contributes to the literature by offering an innovative approach to exploring abstract developmental constructs like purpose formation with youth, providing a richer, more nuanced, and developmentally sensitive understanding of the process. Practically, these methods could be integrated into educational and counseling settings to help young people explore, articulate, and make meaning of their purpose development. By privileging youth voices and providing them with agency to shape their narratives, this approach aligns well with strengths-based, youth-centered interventions that can be applied across settings (e.g., schools, counseling centers, afterschool programs) and fields (e.g., counseling, education, developmental psychology).

5. Conclusions

The use of visual mapping combined with semi-structured interviews provided a comprehensive view of youth purpose development, highlighting the dynamic interplay between experiences, relationships, and aspirations. This approach offers a valuable complement to traditional qualitative and quantitative measures, particularly for capturing developmental trajectories over time. The findings underscore the importance of adopting flexible, youth-appropriate methods to understand the complex and evolving nature of purpose, providing a strong foundation for future research and intervention efforts. Furthermore, our results are consistent with previous work on purpose trajectories (e.g., Kashdan & McKnight, 2009) and the value of relationships in fostering purpose (e.g., Liang et al., 2016a). Taken together, our findings suggest that while innovative methods such as visual mapping can scaffold adolescents’ articulation of purpose, continued methodological refinement and comparison will be important for strengthening claims about their unique contributions. Overall, the field of youth purpose would do well to embrace novel methods that empower youth participants and provide for rich data on purpose journeys.