Relationship between family identity and emotional anticipation of the future in youth

Abstract

This article explores the conditions and risks associated with the identification with the family and its relationship to the emotional anticipation of one’s future in contemporary youth. The study sample consisted of 134 Moscow-based university students. The following empirical methods were used: a self-designed questionnaire to assess autobiographical memory, focusing on respondents’ knowledge of older generations of their family and significant family events; A. V. Sidorenkov’s group identity tool; and J. Nuytten’s Time Attitude Scale modified by T. A. Nestik. The empirical study was conducted by M.V. Gorodilina under the scientific supervision of L. V. Tarabakina (Gorodilina 2019). In modern literature, identity has become the focus of interdisciplinary research, especially in relation to the preservation of family memory. However, concerns have been raised about how changing living conditions and the rapid dissemination of personal information via social networks affect this process. In psychology, the expanding focus on family memory and identification is rooted in the hierarchical nature of the organization of psyche. According to G. M. Andreeva (Andreeva 2002), emotions play a central role in all levels of the psyche — perceptual, social, and personal — and facilitate their interaction. Similarly, V. P. Zinchenko, the of the level model of consciousness, emphasizes the crucial role of emotions in the functioning of consciousness (Zinchenko 2006). In addressing this issue, we find it productive to apply the concept of ‘emotional anticipation’, introduced by Yu. V. Krasavtseva in her dissertation research under the supervision of T. V. Kornilova (Krasavtseva 2021). The results of Sidorenkov’s group identity method revealed that the emotional component is dominant across all the four identified subgroups different by identity indicators. Additionally, the indicators of the subgroup with high family identity were compared with scores on time attitudes. The comparison indicated several key findings: 1) Family, as a specific group formed through experiences of parental love, serves as a critical resource for youth in shaping a positive emotional anticipation of their future; 2) Emotional anticipation emerges as a result of the individual’s connection to family memory and their involvement with extended relatives.