In the introduction to this special issue on youth purpose, the authors discuss the challenges in assessing purpose in adolescents; purpose is a concept that has more often been studied in adults but not in youth. First, theauthors discuss how purpose has been defined in the literature. The authors then situate purpose in the context of a host of related constructs, such as intentional self-regulation, future orientation, goal setting, and identity. Additionally, the authors discuss the importance of accurately measuring youth purpose, as well as in what contexts the assessment of purpose is useful, such as for positive youth development researchers, as well as practitioners and evaluators of youth development programs.

在关于青年目的的这一特殊问题的引言中，作者讨论了在评估青少年目的方面的挑战。目的是一个在成年人中研究较多但在年轻人中未研究的概念。首先，作者讨论了如何在文献中定义目的。然后，作者在许多相关构架的上下文中确定目的，例如有意的自我调节，未来的方向，目标设定和身份认同。此外，作者讨论了准确衡量青年目的的重要性，以及目的评估在什么情况下有用，例如对于积极的青年发展研究人员以及青年发展计划的从业者和评估者。