Puscasu, Amneris; (2024) Young people and intergenerational narratives. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis examines how far intergenerational narratives (stories of the young people’s elders’ personal past) are important to adolescents in their identity construction. Despite their importance to adolescent development (Fivush, 2019), there is surprisingly little research about intergenerational narratives (Fivush & Merrill, 2016) and whether and how they are received and experienced by young people. By employing an interdisciplinary approach (Rattansi & Phoenix, 2005), in which the narrative identity concept (McAdams, 2019) bridged the gap between psychology and sociology, this study examines how young people use the past, constructed through the stories of their elders, to make sense of their lives and define who they are. It does so by focusing on identities as both narrated and socially constructed (McAdams, 2019), that is, how young people construct their identities as situated understandings, influenced by local and wider socio-cultural norms and contexts (Phoenix, 2013). The study employs a narrative research approach as theoretical and methodological frameworks to generate and analyse the data. The research is based on the family narratives of forty-one self-selected multi-ethnic young people aged 11-14 years, recruited in publicly funded schools in New York City. Their narratives were generated using different qualitative methods and investigated around three areas of interest: family storytelling; intergenerational transmission via storytelling; and the construction of identities. By focusing on key narratives (Phoenix, 2013) the research shows that in contrast to current youth studies which often focus on concerns with peer groups or consumption, young people’s narratives point to the intergenerational construction of bonds via storytelling (Brannen, Moss & Mooney, 2004). The study also shows that young people understand the past in contextual and situated ways. By subscribing to the notion that family stories are valuable, young people's narrative accounts suggest that intergenerational family narratives help them connect to the past and inform their decisions and behaviours in the present.

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