Abstract
In the complex and unstable realities of Ukrainian society in recent years, significant changes have been observed in marriage and family processes, and therefore the problem of the psychological foundations and characteristics of the development of contemporary youth's perceptions of love and marriage was relevant and required thorough research. The aim of the study was to identify the psychological characteristics of contemporary Ukrainian youth's perceptions of love and marriage in conditions of socio-psychological uncertainty. The main research methods were a written survey using Google Forms and quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. The results showed that for modern youth in conditions of socio-psychological uncertainty, love and romance are worldview values of present and future life. As for the values of starting a family and getting married, they turned out to be irrelevant for modern youth. The young people surveyed had highly differentiated ideas about love and romance, emphasising such fundamental psychological characteristics of love as the highest human feeling: depth, duration, stability, strength, awareness, unconditional acceptance of a partner, responsibility, devotion, trust, care, etc. In their ideas about love, modern young people noted its emotional and moral-ethical components, as well as emphasising the joint activity aspect of partner relationships in love. At the same time, modern youth showed duality in their understanding and attitude towards love, demonstrating, on the one hand, a rational approach to feelings of love and, on the other hand, an irrational approach. In the perceptions of young people, a long period of partnership should contribute to the well-being of a future marriage. It was also found that modern youth were tolerant of the diversity of manifestations of love in society, as they valued love as an existential need for the life of any person. The results obtained in the study regarding youth's perceptions of love and marriage can be used in counselling and psychotherapeutic practice by family psychologists and other professionals in the helping professions