Adolescents’ interest experience in daily life in and across family and peer contexts

Abstract

This study examined daily experiences of interest in and across the social contexts of family and in- and out-of-school peers. Forty-two Dutch adolescents, aged 13–15 years, provided us with 2 weeks of experience sampling data on their engagement in interesting topics and activities throughout their daily lives. Findings show that adolescent daily life included a diverse range of parallel interests. School-related interests made up a substantial part of adolescents’ daily lives, challenging the idea of mere disengagement of secondary school students in academics. Findings also show that some interests are strongly bound to a specific context, while others appear across family and peer contexts. This indicates how multiple contexts can simultaneously feed interests, something that calls for further across-context research of interest development.