The research concerns the assessments made by young people aged 14-19 in relation to their own perspectives in the continually-changing social situation which characterizes today Poland. The theoretical bases for the work were provided by two theories: first one concerned with the development of the time perspective in young people during adolescence (Nuttin 1980; Tyszkowa 1980) and second one concerning the so - called "future orientation" of young people (after Nurmi 1991). The research was carried out in April 1994 on a total of 373 pupils from six Warsaw schools (three primary and three secondary). 190 of the pupils were finishing primary school (at age of 14-15), while 183 were about to graduate from secondary school (at age of 18-19). The work made use of a questionnaire developed specially for the purpose and focused on the following elements of young people's future orientation: planning of the future, aims in life, the assessment of plans and the emotions (hopes and fears) associated with it. The presented results are of a preliminary, descriptive nature, on account of the fact that statistical processing has not yet been completed. Nevertheless, they are sufficient to indicate that the future is a source of fear for a considerable proportion of the young people which increases with age. At the same time, the majority of those studies were of the view that professional success was attainable, and they also took the optimistic view that their plans for the future would work out. The nature of the situation society find itself in currently is that young people may focus more on personal and emotional links with people than on life in society as a whole.