The Family and Identity Constructions of Youth in the Borderland Conditions
The Family and Identity Constructions of Youth in the Borderland Conditions

Summary/Abstract: The theoretical framework for this discussion is constructivism and Jerzy Nikitorowicz’s concept of the multisided and constantly self--creating identity. In this study, it is assumed that an individual’s iden-tity is socially constructed. The author recognizes the subjective char-acteristics of an individual (which she considers in the broader context of social experiences collected and (re)constructed during primary and secondary socialization) as important factors that are crucially involved in the process of identity formation.This discussion is based on multivariate quantitative and qualitative re-search conducted for over thirty years in the Polish-Czech borderland, in Cieszyn Silesia. The analysis concerns the importance of the fam-ily (the one functioning in the Polish part of Cieszyn Silesia and the other one functioning in Zaolzie – the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia) in constructing an individual’s identity. In their context, it should be stat-ed that an individual shapes the core of their identity in the process of primary socialization: the relatively constant part of it. This core allows for continuity and is a constructive response to the ambiguity of the world. An individual reconstructs their identity on the basis of the available cultural sources by adding them to the core of their identity.

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