Autonomy and intimacy in young adult - parent relationships across generations

We are excited to bring together three complementary presentations examining relationships across generations in Norwegian and British contexts – with Emma Hyde (Leeds), Prof. Kristinn Hegna and Victoria de Leon Born (Oslo).

Emma Hyde (Uni of Leeds) Negotiating (in)dependence: Insights from co-resident young adults and parents in England

Transitions to adulthood in the UK have become increasingly dependent on family resources and support in a context of unaffordable housing, deteriorating employment opportunities, and welfare retrenchment. Growing numbers of young people are living in the parental home into their late twenties and thirties, and there has been a rise in financial inter-generational ‘gifts’ towards homeownership. Whilst prolonged parental support is said to have become a more normative expectation, independence from family has been historically valued in the UK and neo-liberal ideals of meritocratic individualism continue to persist. However, very little is known about the subjective perceptions and practices surrounding these inter-generational supports, and the ways in which young adults and parents negotiate conflicting norms of familial dependency and expectations of independence and autonomy. In this presentation, I share insights from a qualitative study exploring prolonged co-residence and support amongst 32 young adults (aged-20-36) and 13 parents in Leeds and Bradford. Across diverse social class, socio-economic, and cultural circumstances, I demonstrate the complex and ambivalent ways in which (in)dependence was experienced and negotiated within inter-generational relationships over time and highlight implications for the reproduction and entrenchment of systemic inequalities.

Prof. Kristinn Hegna (Uni of Oslo): Feeling close, disclosing feelings – family practices and practices of intimacy in youth–parent relations across three generations in Norway

In my research with Kristin Vasbø I aimed to understand how everyday family practices and practices of intimacy are connected in the formation of emotional ties in young people’s family relationships, by examining their relationship with their parents across three generations. The analyses drew on qualitative biographical interviews conducted with women and men in intergenerational chains of 24 sons/daughters (born 1992–1993), 23 of their fathers/mothers (born 1963–1970) and 21 of their grandfathers/ grandmothers (born 1931–1945). By first exploring the narratives of the joint everyday practices between young people and their parents and, second, examining the emotional reflexivity in these relational narratives, we highlighted differences in young people’s relations to their parents. In my presentation I will contrast the oldest (1950s) and youngest (2013, born 1992-1993) youth generations first, as this reveals similarities and differences in how joint activities and closeness to parents was found in both generations. The degree of disclosing intimacy, individualised respect and shared interests marks the unique co-constructive nature of the youngest’ parental relations. The middle generation’s (1980s, born 1963-1970) narratives were distinctive in describing themselves and their parents as living separate lives.

Victoria de Leon Born (Uni of Oslo): Intergenerational stories of independence and autonomy in Norway

In my work with Kristinn Hegna and Kristin Vasbo, I wanted to contribute to the growing body of literature describing new conditions for and meanings of young people’s autonomy and self.  Being young is inherently a future-oriented project, and societal demands directed at the young—aspirations towards education and work, navigating their relationship with parents and self-governance—involve envisioning oneself as autonomous and independent within that future. However, young people's opportunity to make claims to traditional notions of independence and autonomy are challenged at several fronts.  We compare contemporary youths’ stories of aspirations, moving out and their relationships with their parents, imaginaries of the future and ‘self’, with those of their parents as a strategy to understand the meaning young people of today attribute to independence and autonomy. These analyses are based on the same qualitative dataset from interviews with young people aged 19 years (23 individuals born from 1992 to 1993) and their parent generation (23 individuals born from 1963 to 1970).