Close family bonds and community distrust. The complex emotional experience of a young generation from southern Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT For decades, scientific literature has highlighted the discomfort and delay of the transition to adulthood of the young generations of southern Italy. This article examines the experience of the current young generation, strongly disadvantaged by structural factors of their environment, like crime and unemployment, and by a familistic culture. This study involved 160 young people (age range = 18-34; sd = 4.242) living in the metropolitan area of Naples. They were asked to describe their emotional relations with their community of belonging, their family bonds and their aspirations for the future. Data were collected qualitatively and analyzed through a psychological textual analysis (Emotional Textual Analysis) aimed at capturing the emotionality through which these youths attribute meaning to their reality and make decisions. Results show a generation left alone with its goals; in fact, the presence of crime inhibits the ability to plan the future, while the family of origin is mostly focused on keeping the younger generations inside to defend themselves against the instability of the outside world. In these circumstances, relations with peers and higher education function exclusively as a condition of pervasive presentification, in which to continue living within the role of eternal young people and students.