Family institute and environmental responsibility in the view of Russian youth

Abstract

Modern studies of ideas about the family reflect a contradiction: on the one hand, young people are guided by the values of individualism, freedom, and self-development, and on the other, they maintain the high value and desirability of the family. The use of methods of psychosemantics and metaphorical images in the study revealed the peculiarities of young people’s ideas about the family and revealed the “zones of psychological tension” in the sphere of family and family relations. In the semantics of ideas about the family, schoolchildren and students alike identified the priorities of boundaries and the understanding of the family as a closed location. In the minds of students, the cognitive and emotional aspects of ideas are more clearly differentiated, and the willingness to actively create their own family is reflected. Among young people with higher education and experience of marriage or cohabitation, negative connotations of family assessment prevail. The area of psychological stress in the family sphere: schoolchildren have a weak orientation in family relations, students have idealistic expectations, and older youth have numerous problems related to personality characteristics.