Despite being a valued resource for adolescent health and development, the field maintains an incomplete view of how youths’ sense of purpose in life corresponds with their subjective well-being (SWB; i.e., greater life satisfaction and positive affect, lower negative affect). These blind spots are especially noticeable at the daily level, and the field further fails to consider how daily associations between purpose and SWB might vary across important individual differences. This study addresses these gaps in the literature using a daily diary approach to track adolescents (N = 204; M_age = 16.42 years; 70.1% female) across approximately 70 days of enrollment in GripTape, a U.S.-based out-of-school time program that supports engagement with personally meaningful activities. We found that on days teens felt more purposeful than usual, they tended to report greater SWB. Moreover, we failed to find evidence that subclinical autistic traits, an individual difference that corresponded with lower daily SWB ratings, moderated the observed daily benefits of feeling more purposeful than usual. With one of the longest consecutive studies of youth well-being to date, our work shows that day-to-day fluctuations in purpose are a useful addition to the adolescent SWB landscape. Following this necessary observational groundwork, future research may invest in creating and testing purpose opportunities for a more inclusive range of youth.

尽管是青少年健康和发展的宝贵资源，但该领域对青少年的生活目标感如何与其主观幸福感（SWB；即更高的生活满意度和积极影响，更低的消极影响）保持着不完整的看法。这些盲点在日常水平上尤其明显，而且该领域还没有考虑目标和 SWB 之间的日常关联如何因重要的个体差异而不同。本研究解决了文献中的这些差距，使用每日日记方法跟踪青少年（N = 204；M_年龄= 16.42 岁；70.1% 为女性）在GripTape入学大约 70 天内，一个总部位于美国的校外时间计划，支持参与对个人有意义的活动。我们发现，在青少年感觉比平时更有目的性的日子里，他们倾向于报告更大的主观幸福感。此外，我们未能找到证据表明亚临床自闭症特征（一种与较低的每日 SWB 评分相对应的个体差异）会缓和观察到的感觉比平常更有目的性的日常益处。通过迄今为止持续时间最长的青少年幸福感研究之一，我们的工作表明，目的的日常波动是对青少年 SWB 景观的有益补充。在这一必要的观察基础工作之后，未来的研究可能会投资于为更具包容性的青年创造和测试目的机会。