The article covers the problems of personal identity formation, identity transformations, special focus of the work is the methodological basis of personal identity formation research of adolescents, their “moving into adulthood” in the situation of social-economic instability and crisis. Personal identity formation is described as phenomenon in its transformations. As criteria for defining identity in adolescents we use stability of self-conceptions in time and readiness to make independent decisions in life. Thus different combinations of various levels of stability and readiness to make decisions will determine identity typology.

The article presents results of the empirical study of the subjective life picture of contemporary teenagers, based on different milestones, represented in autobiographical memories or in the image of the future. In the empirical study using A. Kronik’s “Life Line” on the sample of 390 senior high school students the age-related differences between autobiographical memories and image of the future, specific emotional attitudes towards them, cultural specific and individual configuration of the memories and of the image of the future are shown. The image of the family takes a significant place in the image of the future of contemporary teenagers.