Personal values in adolescence and sense of coherence in adulthood: A cross‐sectional study based on a retrospective recall

Abstract Aims The purpose of this study is to retrospectively examine the association between personal values in adolescence and sense of coherence (SOC) in adulthood. Methods J‐SHINE data from wave 1 (2010) and wave 3 (2017) were used in this study. We retrospectively measured personal values at age 15 in 2017 in two ways: (a) value priorities developed from Schwartz's theory of basic values; and (b) the commitment to values measured by Personal Values Questionnaire II (PVQ‐II). Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the association. Results Having a value priority of belief, pursuing one's interest, enduring active challenges, cherishing family and friends, and having a commitment to values in adolescence were significantly and positively associated, while avoiding causing trouble was significantly and negatively associated with SOC in adulthood. Conclusions Personal values in adolescence may be associated with SOC in adulthood. Research of personal values in adolescence could contribute to the understanding the development of SOC.

Personal values are a broad goal, varying in importance and underlying and guiding attitudes and behaviors. 15,16 Personal values are formed in adolescence, which may affect long-term cognitions and behaviors. 15 A previous study reported that universalistic values which was classified as self-transcendence were related to the creation of meaningfulness. 17 Conservative and self-transcendence values in adolescence have been found to be the most important predictors of SOC in adolescence. 18 However, the evidence is still limited to one country, Italy, and may not be generalized to other countries with different cultures, such as Asian countries. In addition, personal values in adolescence may have an impact on SOC in adulthood. No studies have investigated the association between personal values in adolescence and SOC in adulthood.
The purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary and exploratory examination of the association between personal values in adolescence and SOC in adulthood in a large community sample in Japan, by analyzing existing data where the assessment of personal values in adolescence was conducted retrospectively.

| Study design, setting, and participants
We conducted a cross-sectional study based on retrospective recall by using wave 1 (2010) and wave 3 (2017) data from the Japanese Study on Stratification, Health, Income, and Neighborhood (J-SHINE) survey. 19 Adult residents aged 20-50 years were randomly selected from four municipalities (two in Tokyo; two in neighboring prefectures) by using systematic sampling methods from a residents' register. There were no inclusion and exclusion criteria except for age.
The participants received an invitation letter, and trained surveyors visited their houses. After the surveyors obtained written informed consent, the participants answered the self-administered questionnaire with a computer-aided personal instrument (CAPI). SOC and socio-demographics were measured in wave 1, and personal values in adolescence were measured in wave 3 ( Figure 1  The reliability and validity of the Japanese version of PVQ-II have previously been confirmed. In this study, we revised the items to the past tense and instructed the participants to answer the items they considered the most important when they were 15-16 years old.

| Sense of coherence (SOC)
We used the University of Tokyo Health Sociology version of the SOC Scale (SOC-3-UTHS) to measure sense of coherence. 24 It consists of three items (comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness) asked on a seven-point Likert scale (1 = not at all, 7 = very).
The reliability and validity of the Japanese version of SOC-3-UTHS have previously been confirmed.

| Socio-demographics
Socio-demographic information included age, sex, marital status, education, employment, household income, smoking, drinking alcohol, and economic status at 15 years. Education was divided into four groups: junior high school graduates, high school graduates, some college, university graduates, or higher. Employment was divided into three groups, working, on leave, job seeking, housewife, or student. Based on the sum of annual household income, the respondents were divided into five groups: <2.5 million yen, from 2.5 million yen to <5 million yen, from 5 million yen to <7.5 million yen, 7.5 million yen or over, and not known. As for smoking, ex-smoker was included in smoker. Drinking alcohol was divided into two items: Whether the participants were habitual drinkers (drinking more than three times per week) or not. The economic status at 15 years old was classified as poor, moderate, or good.

| Analysis
Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the association between personal values in adolescence and SOC in adulthood, adjusting for the socio-demographic variables. A P-value of <.05 was Invalid data/nonparticipant (n = 1 333) made statistically significant. SPSS (windows version 25) was used for statistical analysis. In these analyses, we did not impute missing responses for the variables.

| Demographic and psychosocial characteristics and SOC in adults
Among the total of 2787 survey respondents, 2669 completed the value priorities and PVQ-II. Some of the respondents had missing values on the demographic variables of smoking, drinking alcohol, and economic status at age 15 (n = 68) so were excluded from the study. 2601 respondents who did not have missing values were used for analysis. Table 1 shows socio-demographic variables and SOC in adulthood among the respondents.

| D ISCUSS I ON
To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the association between personal values in adolescence and SOC in adulthood in a country outside of Europe. Having a value priority of belief, pursuing one's interest, enduring active challenges, cherishing family and friends, and having a commitment to values in adolescence were significantly and positively associated with SOC in adulthood, while avoiding causing troubles was significantly and negatively associated.
The previous study showed that having conservative and self-transcendence values were positively associated with SOC in adolescence. 18 Our results were inconsistent with the previous study. 18 The possible reasons for this inconsistency were as follows. First, the timing of SOC measurement differed between the two studies. The values influencing SOC formation may have been different between adolescence and adulthood. Second, religious differences that may provide a coherent global framework could affect the inconsistency. 25 The previous study was conducted in Italy while our study was performed in Japan. As many Italians believe in Catholicism, living experience with stable rules and norms with Catholics' conservative values may have affected the formation of SOC. 26 On the other hand, in Japan, which was reported as less religious than other countries, having a successful coping experience under moderate stress with openness to change values might have been more significant for creating SOC. 27 Third, the measurement of value priorities in adolescence varied between the two studies. The reliability and validity of our original questionnaire had not been fully confirmed, which could have caused random error. 20,21 However, our study found that having a value priority of belief, pursuing one's interest, enduring active challenges, cherishing family and friends, and having a commitment to values in adolescence were associated with SOC in adulthood. The possible mechanism of this finding could be explained by the Antonovsky's theory. 1 Antonovsky stated that the development of SOC required three types of experience: living experience with stable rules and norms, successful coping experience under moderate stress, and participation in important decision-making. 1

| CON CLUS IONS
This retrospective study suggested a possible association between the personal values in adolescence and SOC in adulthood. Personal values in adolescence related to self-transcendence and openness to change could make a significant contribution to understanding and having positive effects on SOC in adulthood.

CO N FLI C T O F I NTE R E S T S
None.

DATA R E P O S I TO RY
The data that support the findings of this study are proprietary data of the J-SHINE study and therefore are not publicly available.
Restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for this study. However, the data might be available from the Data Management Committee of the J-SHINE study by contacting the Chair, Prof Hideki Hasimoto (hideh ashim oto-circ@umin.ac.jp).

A PPROVA L O F TH E R E S E A RCH PROTO CO L BY A N I N S TITUTI O N A L R E V I E WER B OA R D
The study was approved by the University of Tokyo ethics committee.

I N FO R M E D CO N S E NT
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

AUTH O R CO NTR I B UTI O N S
NY wrote the manuscript and KW, DN, and NK critically revised the manuscript.