Transition to the adult life: autonomy and dependence

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the prolonged staying of young-adults in their parent’s home, assessing the standard parameters which define the passage to adult life concerning to the family life cycle. The passage to adulthood involves transactions between autonomy and dependence, within a wider social-cultural context. The extension of intergerational co-living under the influence of the individualism in constitution of contemporary social life is discussed. This phenomenon is considered paradigmatic, once it hides and reveals the following current paradoxes: the conciliation of individual and hierarchical practices in the family; and the social bonds in a individual-culture society.