The role of the school in shaping the image of the future of a modern teenager

Context and relevance. The image of the future is the result of the internal activity of the individual, which reflects the characteristics of life aspirations, value orientations, prospects and characteristics of self-realization. The picture of the future is revealed as a holistic, unified image that is formed in a certain society at a certain time. It has cognitive and emotional components. It is important, starting from childhood, to take into account the factors that influence the development of the child’s personality and to create conditions that contribute to the formation of positive models for the future. Objective. To compare the results of a survey of students in two age groups (grades 5–7 and grades 8–11) with the aim to identifying the most significant topics for each age period that underlie ideas about their future. Hypothesis. The degree of orientation towards the future and the features of the image of the future largely depend on the individual and age characteristics of the students, as well as their relationship with the social environment. Methods and materials. The study involved 2,432 students in grades 5–11 from 109 educational institutions in Moscow. To identify significant topics that influence ideas about their future, free-form mini-essays on the topics of “A Letter to My Future Self” and “Me in Five Years” were used. Results. The results showed that, in general, the results of older teenagers largely coincide with the results of younger ones in terms of the components of the image of the future, but there are also significant differences concerning individual topics that teenagers touched upon in their mini-essays. Conclusions. School as an environment has a huge resource for ensuring positive socialization of students of different age categories. In order to form a positive image of their future in a modern teenager, when planning preventive work, it is necessary to take into account the age and individual characteristics of students, as well as the specifics of their social development situation.