“Matricentric culture” as a possible limit for life planning: how important is the role of parents?

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to analyze the influence of psychological variables and the family environment in theformation ofentrepreneurial intentions. In thecurrentsociety ofchange,characterized byan expansion of training time and a constantly changing working environment, parenting models are configured as fundamental variables, for understanding the processes that lead to self-determination and to become competently active actors.
In accordance with the specialist literature, this can take place in relation to the so-called “matricentrism”: a socio-anthropological phenomenon characterized by protection and security that can negatively influence the acquisition of autonomy and the ability of the subject to act. This seems to be a limit: in general, in relation to the needs of modern society, which requires flexible identities and the ability to project itself into the future in a “constructively active” way; in particular, with regard to the orientation to do business understood as “a mental state, motivation and ability to produce new value” (COM, 2003, p.6). The first results of this research, conducted with 347 students of the Economics Department of the University of Catania, seem in many ways interesting. In general, in fact, the educational functions of the mother and father are characterized by ambivalence: a discreet orientation of both the “block” and the “support”. In particular, the support received from the father is positively linked to the entrepreneurial intention; the perceived support of the mother is linked to innovation and change. The analysis also shows a significant effect of openness to innovation/change and risk appetite on the intention to undertake. The results can contribute to the understanding of the psychosocial processes that refer to the difficulties that characterize the “reality of change” and to the development of functional training interventions to “build autonomy” and which aim to live the uncertainties in the interpretation of the role and to the “orientation to do business”