Purpose in Life ― A Critical Component of Optimal Youth Development

This book offers a state of the science on young people’s sense of life purpose. It synthesizes the rapidly growing body of research on the topic in a comprehensive yet easily accessible manner and is an important research tool for ‘quality of life’ scholars.

Dr. Kendall Cotton Bronk is an educational psychologist interested in positive youth development and the moral growth of young people. For the past 12 years she has investigated these topics through the lens of young people’s life purposes. Her research has explored the relationship between life purposes and healthy growth, ways young people discover life purposes, and the developmental trajectory of youth with strong commitments to various life purposes. A surprising finding emerged from her longitudinal research on the topic; many of the young people with life purposes ended up becoming entrepreneurs. In order to fill a personally meaningful social need, they launched their own businesses. Consequently, Dr. Bronk’s research has more recently focused on how young business leaders develop and on the important role of humility among effective entrepreneurs. In addition to her substantive interests, Dr. Bronk has also helped define and outline the parameters of the exemplar methodology, an approach that allows researchers to gain a view not only of typical and deficient growth, but also of exemplary development, which is critical for a full understanding of human development. Dr. Bronk teaches undergraduate, masters, and doctoral classes on adolescent development, lifespan development, and research methods. After graduating with a B.S. from Northwestern University, Dr. Bronk earned her doctorate from Stanford University.