Future-oriented or present-focused? The role of social support and identity styles on ‘futuring’ in Italian late adolescents and emerging adults

Abstract

Late adolescence and emerging adulthood are periods in the life cycle when individuals are involved in anticipating and planning for the future (futuring). However, in the last five or six years, as the effects of the recession have made themselves felt in Southern Europe, the situation that young people face has deteriorated dramatically. As a consequence, contemporary young people’s relationship with the future is strongly marked by these social difficulties, and family support becomes essential to their survival. The present study was interested in how futuring could be influenced by identity styles and perceptions of social support. Participants were 1201 Italian late adolescents and emerging adults attending the last year of high school and first years of university. We used three self-report measures: Functions of Identity Scale, Identity Style Inventory, and Social Support Scale. Findings indicate that futuring was influenced by the normative style and the diffuse-avoidant style and by the interactions between both normative identity style and diffuse/avoidant identity styles with peer support. Gender and age differences are discussed.

Keywords:

• futuring
• identity styles
• social support
• identity functions

Disclosure of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The term emerging adulthood is described a period in the lifespan between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood, proposed by Jeffrey Arnett in a 2000 article in the American Psychologist. It primarily applies to young adults in developed countries who do not have children, do not live in their own home, or do not have sufficient income to become fully independent in their early-to-late 20s. According to Arnett (2004, 2007), emerging adulthood is characterized by high levels of exploration of many opportunities and also by high levels of uncertainty and instability.

2. The National Statistics Institute (ISTAT) is a governmental research organization. It has been in existence since 1926 and it is the main producer of official statistics in support of citizens and decision-makers. It works independently and in continuous interaction with the academic and scientific worlds.

3. In Italy, some students complete high school when they are 18 years old (if they are born in the second half of the year), and other students complete high school when they are already 19 (if they are born in the first half of the year). For this reason, both the late adolescent group and the emerging adult group contain some participants who are 19 years old.