3.1. Participants
In Turkey, working adolescents attend vocational education centers 1 day per week (8 hours) and work full-day at various enterprises 4 or 5 times a week (32 or 40 hours). They earn between TL 300 and TL 1500 (102.90 and 514.51 Dollar) depending on the job and have insurance only for work accidents. Data for this study were collected in Istanbul over the period February - June 2013. Adolescents that were between 15 and 20 years old were included in the study. The exclusion criteria were the presence of a self-reported physical illness, mental disorder or disability in the adolescent or in the parents, and death of a parent (considering it might affect the positive future expectation and subjective wellbeing of the adolescent). While 902 adolescents meeting the criteria were included in the study, 87 adolescents were excluded, either because they did not meet the criteria or due to their incompletely filled out questionnaires.
The study was conducted in two centers which randomly selected from vocational education centers in Istanbul with similar characteristics (16 centers). According to Kilic (19), one of the methods that can be used to calculate sample size is power analysis. With a margin of error (α) of 0.05 for this study, an expected power of 0.80 and a Z value of 1.96, the sample size was calculated as 897. Participants were selected from the centers via the systematic sampling method (selecting every nth student from the list). The study was conducted with 420 of the 909 adolescents working and continuing their education in two vocational education centers and 482 of the 1027 adolescents continuing their formal education in the same district (n = 902). Besides the main purpose of the study, it was designed to compare subjective wellbeing and positive future expectancies, between two groups of adolescents with similar sociodemographic characteristics but different education and work experience. However, a significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of gender (no significant relationship was found between gender and subjective wellbeing and positive future expectancy). Such a difference is likely to be the result of the limited opportunities of vocational education for female adolescents in Turkey. Female adolescents may be forced not to continue their education even when they succeed in academic life, and those who do not continue education usually work at home. Therefore, it was not possible to control the effect of gender by maintaining similar rates.
3.2. Questionnaire
In this study, a demographic questionnaire, adolescent subjective wellbeing scale (ASWS), and positive future expectations scale (PFES) were used to assess sociodemographic information, subjective wellbeing, and future expectations, respectively.
Demographic questionnaire: this form was designed by the researchers to include the independent variables of the study and contains multiple-choice questions about age, gender, family type, parent occupational status, and family income.
Adolescent Subjective Wellbeing Scale: ASWS is a self-report scale designed in Turkey by Eryilmaz (20). He stated that this scale has been prepared based on the literature, and a structure based on 4 factors was achieved after item and factor analyses. As a result, the scale includes 4 subscales: family relations satisfaction (FRS), life satisfaction (LS), positive affects (PA), and satisfaction in relations with significant others (SRSO). Items number 1, 2, 3, and 4 (e.g. my family supports me) constitute the FRS; items number 5, 6, 7, and 8 (e.g. I have a good time with my friends) constitute the SRSO; items number 9, 10, and 11 (e.g. I live as I wish) constitute the LS; and items number 12, 13, 14, and 15 (e.g. I am generally joyful) constitute the PA subscale. Items are rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale; each item is rated as 1 = definitely disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = agree, and 4 = definitely agree. The highest possible score is 60. Higher total scores indicate better adolescent wellbeing, while higher scores in the subscales indicate positive self-report on the relevant subscale (20).
In the study by Eryilmaz (20), the internal consistency for FRS was α = 0.83, for SRSO α = 0.73, for LS α = 0.81, and for PA α = 0.66. The internal consistency for the total score was α = 0.83. In the present study, the internal consistency for FRS was α = 0.81, for SRSO α = 0.75, for LS α = 0.83, and for PA α = 0.72. The internal consistency for the total score in the present study was found to be α = 0.88.
Positive future expectations scale: PFES is a self-report scale constructed in Turkey Imamoglu and Edwards (21), and consists of 5 items measuring the degree of positive expectations one holds towards one’s personal future. The items of the scale are as follows: “I am optimistic about my personal future,” “I believe that sooner or later, I will attain my goals,” “I am optimistic about succeeding in what I want to do in the future,” “I am a little pessimistic about my personal future,” and “Despite various difficulties, I hold an optimistic view of the future.” Items are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale as 1 = definitely disagree, 2 = partly disagree, 3 = agree, 4 = mostly agree, and 5 = definitely agree. Item number 4 is reverse-coded and the highest possible score is 20. Higher scores indicate more positive future expectations. In the original study, the internal consistency was found to be α = 0.93 (21). In the present study, Cronbach α for this measure was 0.82.
3.3. Statistical Analysis
Data were analyzed using SPSS 17.00. A histogram was used to determine the normality of distribution and it was found that the data outside of age were nonparametric. Data regarding the sociodemographic characteristics of the adolescents in the sample were analyzed using descriptive statistical analyses. The relationship between adolescent subjective wellbeing and positive future expectations was analyzed using Spearman correlational analysis. The adolescent subjective wellbeing and positive future expectation scores of working and nonworking samples were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test. Another Mann-Whitney U test was run to analyze the relationship between gender and adolescent subjective wellbeing and positive future expectations.
3.4. Ethical Issues
The Istanbul provincial directorate for national education committee approved the study (approval dated May 11, 2012, "B.08.4.MEM.0.34.14.00-020). Before starting the study, the school administrator was informed about the research. Also, all of the participants were informed that their personal data would be kept confidential. All participants gave their informed consent after receiving both written and oral information about the study. All data collection instruments were administered to the adolescents in the classroom setting.
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