Basic values are abstract beliefs about desirable, trans-situational goals that serve as guiding principles in people's life. Values have been conceived as enduring beliefs, which are relatively consistent over time. Nonetheless, they may undergo significant modifications across the life span. Most of previous studies on value change have been conducted on samples of adults or university students. Only few studies, in contrast, have focused on earlier developmental stages.
The aim of the present study is to investigate the normative development of values in the transition from middle to late adolescence, during the high school years (i.e., from 15 to 18 years). We adopt Schwartz's (1992) model of basic personal values, due to its comprehensiveness and wide use. We rely on different approaches to longitudinal data, which offer unique information on stability and change. Specifically, we examine: 1) correlation over time for assessing the extent to which individual differences in the importance of values remain constant (rank-order stability); 2) latent growth curve modeling for examining the average change in value importance (mean-level stability); 3) within-person correlations for examining the degree to which the person's value hierarchy is maintained over time (ipsative stability). Moreover, we examine how development and change in the full set of values is related to significant outcomes at end of the high school, among which school engagement and achievement.
The study is part of an ongoing longitudinal research that involve about 300 high school Italian students. Data for the first three time points, separated by 1 year, from 2nd to 4th grades, are already available. We intend to extend the longitudinal study, by adding a new wave of data at the end of the upper secondary school (when students are in the 5th grade), and collecting significant scholastic outcomes, among which school engagement and students' final grades, attendance and conduct.
