Youth Individualisation and Family Relations: Three Studies of Family and Youth Life

This paper presents three different studies on youth and family relations and the role of family influence in youth individualization. They show the growing importance of individualization in late modern youth life development and the process of youth life change from family dependence to peer relations. This change is seen as part of a greater change in family life, which change social agency from adults and family to the individual and its personal choices. The first study compares Siberian and Danish young people and their family and peer relations and points to the challenges of developing an independent youth life as a changing force in individualization. The second study looks at Danish young people and their use of family and peer support in everyday life. This study tells how a recognised independent youth life creates new form of social relations between young people and the family. The third study looks for knowledge of ethnic minority youth individualisation in their acculturation or social integration process in late modern Europe. This study illustrates some practical aspects of the two first analyses. Ethnic minority youth often seem to be caught between family and late modern peer youth life. The study tells that changing family practice becomes important for the young persons. Families are in a change from a ‘reproductive’ family to a ‘modern’ or even ‘supportive’ family and this change influences the individualisation process of ethnic minority youth.

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