The following dissertation deals with the issues of unemployment among young adults, their self-image, and their family of origin environments. Young adults belong to one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to employment opportunities in the job market. In the first part of her dissertation, the author discusses the importance of work for an individual, his survival and his life in general. Providing a detailed definition of the term unemployment, the author goes on to explain the far-reaching consequences that unemployment can have on an individual, who, by being unemployed, especially for a longer period of time, has been excluded from the system of work, and needs to daily overcome some major economic, social, and psychological difficulties.
Part two of the dissertation takes a closer look at the period of young adulthood. Today, young adults who complete their formal education but are unable to find employment are suddenly faced with their own vulnerability. They prolong their youth until their late 20s and continue living with their parents well into their adulthood, which in turn postpones their own journey into adulthood and their readiness to set up an independent household and have a family of their own. The author describes the effects that unemployment has on an individual who is enthusiastic about gaining his first work experience, about showing and sharing his knowledge, acquiring new skills, and, most of all, about living his dreams. Unemployed young people become vulnerable, they feel excluded from their social environment and have no opportunity to live the same life as those who were lucky enough to land a job and become independent. Given the objective reasons for why young adults decide to continue living in their families of origin, we should also point out frequent subjective reasons for doing so. Despite having a job, young people today still choose to live at home with their parents and lead some sort of half adult lives, maintaining semi-friendly relations with their parents, who provide financial and social security for their children.
The third part of the dissertation focuses on the importance of self-image in the life of an individual. Self-image is a picture of how we perceive ourselves. It influences our actions and the way we present ourselves to the outside world. The author describes the formation of self-image through different stages in the life of an individual (pre-school and school period, young adulthood and adulthood). Young adulthood is a time when the development of a person’s self-image is most intense and reaches its peak. Parents, teachers, learning environment, peers etc. play a crucial role during this stage. Self-image continues to develop well into the period of adulthood, when it starts to interact with other factors, such as work, employment, starting a family, relationships, losing employment, etc., all of which can lower our self-image.
The fourth part of the dissertation discusses the importance and the role of a family in the life of each individual. Nowadays it is often believed that family is losing its significance and that things used to be different and mostly better in the past. Transitional and social changes forced family to change from within, a process which is illustrated here by means of some statistical reports. However, even though the concept of a family and its forms has altered, it is still a well-known fact that family plays an extremely important role in the life of each and every one of us.
In the empirical part of the dissertation the author uses the results of her quantitative research to explore the connection between self-image of unemployed and employed young adults and the relations in their families of origin. 406 young adults participated in the survey, 221 of them were employed, 185 were unemployed. In analyzing data on statistical significance in differences between the functionality of the family of origin of unemployed young adults and that of employed young adults, a significant distinction was discovered in terms of intimacy element, i. e. a trust and development of trust, which was better estimated by the employed participants. However, based on the rest of the obtained data, this hypothesis could not be fully confirmed. Research analysis also showed statistically important differences in the assessment of self-image between employed and unemployed individuals. Likewise, we managed to prove differences between those unemployed in terms of duration of unemployment. The analysis also proved the important role that functional relationships played in the assessment of self-image. Since the research was able to show essential connection between individual spheres, this proves or leads as to believe how important the connection between family, self-image and unemployment really is and the effect it has on the development of an individual.
|
