Family identity in adolescence

The article examines the role of family identity as a foundation for sociocultural identity formation during adolescence. The article presents the findings of empirical research conducted by the authors in 2023. The features of family identity are analysed within the framework of the “I-concept” and “We-concept” of respondents aged 16 to 21 years living in the Buryatia, Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, Tyumen, Volgograd and Arkhangelsk regions. The investigation of identification processes from the perspective of the concepts, meanings, and values ascribed by respondents to their “I” and “We” enables the examination of the qualitative attributes of family and other forms of socio-cultural identity. The identity of the family, as with other social entities, has two dimensions: the ontological (biographical) and the phylogenetic (traditional). The ontological sense of family identity is considered from the perspective of its significance to respondents. The focus is on whether the concept is primarily understood in a fixed sense or is undergoing a process of interpretation and reinterpretation. Furthermore, the relationship between the significance of the “I” and the “We” in family identity is also examined. From a phylogenetic perspective, the meanings ascribed to family roots – that is to say, traditions and values that have been transmitted from one generation to the next within the family – are subjected to analysis. This study examines the interrelationship between family identity in ontogenesis and phylogenesis, and the ethnic and Russian identity of young men and women. The analysis of the research data allows the authors to conclude that the relationship between the “I-concept” and the “We-concept” at the level of family identity, in both its ontological and phylogenetic aspects, is characterised by ambiguity and diversity.