Poverty Stifles Ambition: The Role of Self-Efficacy and Perceived Social Fairness in the Future Orientation of Adolescents from Financially Disadvantaged Families

Although there is substantial evidence that the family’s financial situation influences the development of adolescents’ future orientation, little is known about the influencing mechanism. This study examined the potential mediating effects of self-efficacy (SE) and perceived social fairness (PSF) in the relationship between family financial difficulties (FFD) and future orientation (FO) with two independent samples of Chinese adolescents. In Study 1, a total of 1,527 adolescents (762 girls; mean age = 14.81 years, SD = 1.70) were recruited to complete a multi-section questionnaire. The results indicated that FFD significantly and negatively predicted FO. SE and PSF significantly mediated the relationship between FFD and FO both independently and sequentially. To test whether the above results are stable and replicable, we further conducted a validation study in Study 2 ( N = 410) and found all the results remained significant. Implications for future research and limitations are discussed.