An investigation of the perception of chance events of adolescents in an independent school in regional Victoria

Many students who attended for counselling presented with issues that had arisen in their life due to the presence of one of more chance events that had recently occurred to them. It has been the author’s experience that those adolescents have viewed the ‘chance events’ negatively and not recognised the possible opportunities that could arise. The present research recognised adolescent perceptions of chance events and document how their perceptions of chance events related to their awareness of potential opportunity.
The purpose of the overall research investigation was to, firstly, gauge adolescents’ personal experience of chance events in their lives and personal perception of what constitutes chance events; secondly, to expand on the work of Bright et al. (2009), and investigate whether adolescents consider/process chance events in terms of their controllability and desirability; and finally, addressing question "How do adolescents’ perceptions of chance events influence/relate to their Luck Readiness Profile?" The overall research investigation is therefore an examination of adolescent perceptions of chance events and their relation to opportunity awareness. The major research question for this study is: How do young people characterise chance events?
To answer the major research question, an extensive review of the existing literature on the topics was conducted, and a synthesis thereof generated four key concepts. Each concept then developed to focus and refine the study and subsequently generated the research questions:
Q1. How do adolescents construe the nature and structure of a chance event?
Q2. Is there a meaningful taxonomy of adolescent chance events?
Q3. How do adolescent perceptions of chance events relate to their opportunity awareness?
This research used a Mixed Methods design as it produced both quantitative and qualitative data from both questionaries and focus groups. The participants in the overall research investigation were students who were enrolled in both the middle and senior school, which includes Years 6 through
to Year 12, conducted in a single campus school, locate in the 3rd largest city in Victoria.
Within an Objectivist epistemology, positivism was chosen as the theoretical perspective through which the overall research investigation was conducted, and data examination inferred.
The study found that students reported both positive and negative experiences, but negativity and lower controllability biased their reporting. Female students reported more chance events overall, with this negativity bias lessening with age. Career-related chance events were the least recognised. While students often saw chance events as more likely to happen to others, they acknowledged both opportunities and challenges within them. Religious beliefs, particularly Christian viewpoints, also impacted students' perceptions. They interpreted events, even negative ones, as part of a larger plan, reducing the role of luck and emphasising a "reason for everything" perspective.
These findings point to the importance of considering gender and age and, religious and cultural contexts when investigating chance and luck in young people, revealing a complex interplay between optimism, chance identification, and religious beliefs warranting further research.
Data garnered from the research could inform the development of career education programs within schools to better prepare adolescents for careers in the 21st century. A better understanding of how young people perceive chance events may also inform counselling practice in general, not just vocationally.

This work © 2024, Trenton Loader.