Live Presentation
Speak with Gabrielle Geenen about her practicum on January 31st from 3:30-4:00pm via this zoom link.
Video Presentation
View Gabrielle Geenen's poster presentation in this video recording:
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased levels of uncertainty and social polarization in our societies, compromising young people’s capacity to envision a positive future and maintain a meaningful sense of purpose in life. The present study investigates positive future orientation, presence of meaning in life, and search for meaning in life, as potential predictors of support for violent radicalization (VR) in a sample of Canadian college students. We also investigate the moderating role of positive future orientation in the association between presence of and search for a meaning in life and support for VR. A total of 3100 college students in Québec (69% female; Mage = 18.57, SDage = 1.76) completed an online survey during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from linear mixed-effects models show that positive future orientation and higher presence of meaning in life were negatively and independently associated with support for VR. Search for meaning in life was not associated with support for VR. Finally, the magnitude of the negative association between presence of meaning in life and support for VR was greater for students with a more positive future orientation. Working within a positive youth development framework, we suggest that schools and colleges might implement preventive interventions to support positive future orientation and presence of meaning in life among young people during these challenging and uncertain times. This has the potential to improve public health by reducing the risk of violence related to extremism.