The Closeness of Young Adults’ Relationships with Their Parents

Abstract

Abstracts How close are the relationships between young adults and their parents today? Which factors account for closer or less close relationships between the generations? The theoretical model considers opportunity, need, family and cultural-contextual structures. The empirical analyses draw on the Swiss TREE survey (“Transitions from Education to Employment”). They reveal remarkably close ties between the generations. However, we also find a number of strains, such as the separation of parents and unemployment of adult children, that contribute to family relationships being less close. The findings provide insight into the reality of intergenerational relationships during a dynamic period of life.

Family Dynamics During Emerging Adulthood: Reviewing, Integrating, and Challenging the Field

“…Across studies, these findings are in line with the view that females are more connected to family than males (Aquilino, 2006; Crocetti & Meeus, 2014; Fuligni & Pedersen, 2002). Moreover, our results revealed that female emerging adults were found to be closer to mothers than to fathers (Bertogg & Szydlik, 2016; Tsai et al, 2013) and to report greater levels of maternal secure attachment than their male counterparts did (Ponti & Smorti, 2019). In addition, Yanir and Guttmann (2011) demonstrated that mothers' rankings of connectedness to their children and of their children's accomplishment of emerging adulthood tasks were higher than fathers' rankings.…”

“…Discrepancies in the reports provided by parents and their children regarding family dynamics were identified. On the one hand, parents were found to perceive relationships with their children as being closer than the children did (Bertogg & Szydlik, 2016), reporting higher levels of family cohesion, communication (Givertz & Segrin, 2014), and parental knowledge than children did (Padilla‐Walker et al, 2008). Parents also reported less use of permissive and authoritarian parenting and greater levels of authoritative parenting than offspring did (Givertz & Segrin, 2014).…”

“…Furthermore, Cheng et al (2015) documented discrepancies in terms of perceptions of support provided by emerging adults to their parents, as children claimed to provide more emotional, practical, technological, and financial support, as well as advice, than parents recognized. Globally, parents appeared to be more optimistic in their perceptions of their relationships with their children (e.g., Bertogg & Szydlik, 2016; Givertz & Segrin, 2014). This is in accordance with previous findings from Aquilino (1999) that children tended to focus more on conflict and differences with parents, whereas parents attempted to display a more positive image of their parent–child relationship.…”

TREE (Transitions from Education to Employment): A Swiss multi-cohort survey

“…Furthermore, involving the scientific community in the instrumentation process ensures intensive use of the collected data (see, e.g. Bertogg & Szydlik, 2016;Gauthier & Gianettoni, 2013;Keller, 2013 for the use of items and scales proposed on the basis of calls for instruments).…”

Personal understandings and cultural conceptions of family in European societies

“…A second approach, related to the first one, comes from the research on inter-generational family relationships across households, which focuses on the various forms of practical or emotional support that is exchanged between family members, particularly between adult children and their aged parents (e.g. Bertogg and Szydlik 2016). A third approach lies in the life course perspective, in which family is studied in terms of family-related transitions and biographical phases (Ammar et al 2014;Elder 1977).…”