What does being an adult mean? Comparing young people’s and adults’ representations of adulthood

ABSTRACT

This article aims at exploring the representations young people and adults attribute to the concept of adulthood in order to analyse the effects these ideas have on their reciprocal perception and recognition. In so doing, it draws upon data collected through a grounded theory study, which has been conducted in Italy involving young people and adults in semi-structured qualitative interviews. Data show that an outdated traditional model is still used by both the samples to determine who is an adult and when the adult status is acquired without discussing its validity in front of a changed social scenario. An evaluative function is added to traditional transitional markers of adulthood, which are used by both young people and adults to accuse each other of being ‘not mature enough’. A discrepancy between the shared ideal representations of adulthood and the actual possibility the two generations have to meet those social expectations in their lives emerge. The implications of these results for youth transitions to adulthood are discussed in the light of the high level of intergenerational inequality characterising the Italian context.

KEYWORDS:

• Young people
• intergenerational relationships
• adulthood
• transitions to adulthood
• generations
• social representations
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ilaria Pitti http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6270-501X

Notes

1 The concept of ‘significant adult’ is borrowed from Mead and Stryker's studies (Mead 1967; Stryker 1967) on the ‘significant Others’ and used to define adults who have played a special role in the personal development of young people.

2 In this research, the assessment of the relevance of a given adult for a young individual has been attributed to the young interviewees themselves who have been asked to identify a person they think has played a primary role in their development.

3 It has not been possible to interview 14 significant adults indicated by young people because they were: disinterested in taking part in the study (6); unable to take part to the study because imprisoned at the time of the conduction of the study (1); living outside Italy or in areas of the country particularly difficult to reach (3); or unable to communicate in Italian, French or English (4).

4 Concerns about the ‘excessively youthful’ lifestyle of contemporary adult generation are particularly expressed by the young people having a migrant family background. These young individuals frequently refer to the differences between their parents – who are usually described as very ‘old-fashioned’ – and the ‘other adults’ to underline a general ‘infantilisation’ of the Italian adults.

5 A more critical perspective on this point is sometimes expressed by those working-class adult interviewees who are presumably less likely to benefit from the process of emancipation from the traditional model of adulthood in comparison with their more advantaged peers.