Development of Purpose in the Lives of Young People: A Scientific Examination

The Foundation has invested in three separate phases of Dr. Damon's research into the nature and development of youth purpose. The first phase included a Research Conference at Stanford University. The second phase of funding initiated a range of empirical investigations into the nature and development of youth purpose. The third phase will support young scholars investigating Youth Purpose at the dissertation or post-doctoral level.

Grant Amount:

$2,219,724

Start Date:

October 2002

End Date:

September 2009

Grant ID:

10197, 11757, 11930

Suite of 3 separate grants totaling $2,219,724

Alexander Astin, Professor Emeritus
Division of Higher Education and Organizational Change
Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
University of California – Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)

Jacques Benninga
Bonner Center for Character Education & Citizenship
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Kremen School of Education and Human Development
California State University – Fresno (Fresno, CA)

Peter Benson, President
Search Institute (Minneapolis, MN)

Cynthia Garcia Coll, Robinson and Barstow Professor of Education, Psychology and Pediatrics
Department of Education
Brown University (Providence, RI)

Robert Emmons
Department of Psychology
University of California – Davis (Davis, CA)

Jonathan Haidt
Department of Psychology
University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)

Lene Jensen
Department of Psychology
Catholic University of America (Washington, DC)

Pamela Ebstyne King
Center for Research on Child and Adolescent Development
Graduate School of Psychology
Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA)

Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science
Department of Child Development
Tufts University (Medford, MA)

Dan P. McAdams, Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence
Director, Foley Center for the Study of Lives
Department of Psychology
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL)

Dan McFarland
School of Education
Stanford University (Pasadena, CA )

Daniel Perlstein
Graduate School of Education
University of California – Berkeley (Berkeley, CA)

Sean Reardon
School of Education
Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

Robert Roeser
Department of Child Development
Tufts University (Medford, MA)

Richard A. Shweder, William Claude Reavis Distinguished Service Professor of Human Development
Department of Social Psychology
The University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

Margaret Beale Spencer, Board of Overseers Professor of Education and Psycholog
Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

Linda M. Wagener, Associate Dean
Graduate School of Psychology
Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA)

John Willets
School for New Learning
DePaul University (Chicago, IL)