Giovani, lavoro e identità professionale: bisogni, valori ed autodeterminazione negli adolescenti / Young people, work and professional identity: needs, values and self-determination in adolescents

Starting from a review of the literature, the contribution focuses on the analysis of the needs and values that young adolescents attribute to work, also in relation to the role played by motivation and the influence of the environment on them. In this sense, it describes the results of a research conducted on a group of adolescents that envisaged the administration of a number of instruments aimed at investigating the existence of possible correlations between basic needs (Basic Need Satisfaction Test), the perception of entry competences in the labour market, work values, needs and autonomous functioning index. The data obtained highlighted the significance of these relationships and showed how in the field of education there is a need to increase the focus on pupils' basic needs in order to guarantee their cultural and psychological well-being, which remains the foundation of their future working life. At school, in fact, the adolescent must acquire basic competences and skills that will enable him/her to adapt to any future work situation and that will facilitate his/her professional prospects in order to cope with difficult, uncertain and constantly changing conditions, typical of a contemporary scenario that requires a great wealth of information and sources to make informed choices.