Abstract:

The construction of life projects is related to the identity construction process. Considering the impact that emigration has on the development of adolescents, this study aims to investigate the life projects of Angolan adolescents studying in Portugal, namely how the experience of emigration influences the construction of these projects. Participated in the study 67 young Angolans, both sexes (47.86% girls and 52.2% boys), aged between 17 and 20 years old (μ = 19 ± 0.78), living in Portugal. These young people are emigrants taking a preparatory course to enter higher education in Portugal. For the collection of data four instruments were used, namely, a sociodemographic questionnaire (it included, in addition to the collection of demographic information, such as sex, age, questions related, on the one hand, to life goals - in academic, professional, family and leisure - and, on the other, to the impact of emigration on their life projects); the Self-Directed Search (it allows you to assess young people's career interests); the Self-Concept and Self-Esteem Scale (it allows assessing young people's perception of school competence, social acceptance, athletic competence, physical appearance, romantic attraction, behavior, intimate friendships, mother tongue competence and mathematical competence) and, the Strategies Scale coping (it allows you to know which coping strategies are most used by young people to overcome stress in their daily lives). Data processing was performed using the SPSS program and content analysis. The results obtained show that the students' life projects are poorly structured and more ideological than motivational. They involve academic, professional and family goals. Such objectives are established in order to achieve better living conditions, which ensure basic living conditions, such as having a home, traveling, driving license or even helping with family expenses. Regarding the experience of emigration, it was found that it is seen as important in the identity formation of these students, that is, in the preparation of autonomous life outside the family. On the other hand, a negative influence is also pointed out by the participating students, according to which emigration does not allow contact with family and friends considered as a basis for supporting the construction of life projects. Everyone expects to be able to return to their country after their formation. In terms of professional interests, girls essentially point to preferences in the social and artistic areas, while boys in the conventional and entrepreneurial areas. In the field of perception of school competence, girls tend to have slightly higher values than boys. The same is true for the dimension of social acceptance, behavior, competence in the mother tongue, competence in mathematics and self-esteem. With regard to the ability to cope with the demands, both boys and girls seem to prefer, preferably, an individual-centered coping style, as opposed to the other-centered coping style. The results resulted in some practical implications, namely, the need to develop psychosocial interventions and policies to support the construction of life projects for emigrated students, as well as programs for insertion in the world of work.

Keywords:

Life projects, Migrants, Angolans.