Factor Model of Life-Planning Competence in High School Students

Abstract

Life-planning competence is an integral personality trait that characterizes one’s desire and ability to implement one’s potential, i.e., knowledge, skills, experience, character traits, etc., in order to achieve one’s life objectives. It consists of motivational, cognitive, emotional, volitional, axiological, semantic, operational, reflective, and proactive components. The present research featured the life-planning competence in high school students (n = 200; 2019–2022) of the city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The resulting strategies demonstrated a connection with the concept of being-inthe-world by M. Heidegger and L. Binswanger, as well as A. Längle’s concept of fundamental existential motivations. The statistical analysis involved the principal component method with Varimax rotation and Kaiser sampling. The factor analysis revealed eight factors: 1) purposefulness, meaningfulness, and readiness for life planning; 2) cooperation; 3) reflexive activity control; 4) correlation with the world; 5) control of oneself and the situation; 6) self-awareness; 7) dynamic balance; 8) self-development. These factors connected the process of life-planning with the four existential fundamental motivations identified by A. Längle and the forms of being-in-the-world described by M. Heidegger and L. Binswanger. The high school students demonstrated a motivation for physical survival and spiritual overcoming of existence, as well as a desire to enjoy life, experience values, find self-identity, and seek justice. As teenagers, they lacked the fourth existential motivation, i.e., motivation to obtain existential meaning.