Current, Future and Ideal Family: Social Representations in Emerging Adults. A Cross – National Investigation

Iconic dimensions, key themes and elements of normativity have been explored in the social representations of current, future and ideal family in a sample of young adults - still living with their family of origin - in their transition to adulthood and in the light of a cross-national investigation confronting Italy and Romania. A three-generational perspective has been moreover considered in the idea that relational pathways transmitted among generations can overlap traditions vs modernity. As a matter of fact, though the Theory of Social Representations just turned 50 years old, family as social object has been little explored by this theoretical paradigm, in front of a widespread and recognized clinical and psycho-social literature. Inspired by de Rosa’s modeling approach, our research project aims to investigate such SRs by the implementation of a multi-method questionnaire which includes verbal and graphical tools, projective and structured: a) FACES III, b) Zimbardo Time Perspective Scale c) hand-drawings, d) Associative Networks. Taking into account the transformations that at different levels and perspectives have characterized in the past decades both Italian and Romanian contexts, our findings interlace a complex dialogue between the different techniques used. Considerations about rupture and continuity between the direct experience of the participants (current family), their future expectations (future family) and what has been understood as a normative model (ideal family), will also emphasise how supposed changes within the given values’ system, could affect the representations of expected and idealized relational models towards both the perceptions of own current family and own heritage (family of grandparents).