Hope in the Face of the Greek Crisis: Intergenerational Echoes of Income and Parental Involvement in Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

AbstractThis survey studies hope in emerging adulthood during the Greek socio-economic crisis. It highlights intergenerational echoes at the level of the economic antecedents of the crisis, recollected parental school involvement, and perceived parental hope. Participants were 468 young females and males, mostly university students, but also graduates. The questionnaire battery included demographics, participant and family income, perceived impact of the crisis, parental involvement, and hope. Positive associations were found between (a) available personal income, socio-economic background, and high parental school involvement, and participant and parental hope; (b) available personal and family income, and emerging adults’ experience of the severity of the crisis; (c) perception of the crisis and youths’ hope, along with their perceptions of parental hope; and (d) recollected parental school involvement, and emerging adults’ hope. Overall, recollected parental school involvement was the strongest predictor of youths’ hope, even though the perceived effects of the crisis predicted both hope and parental involvement. Available family and personal income was clearly associated with the way young people experienced the crisis, while paternal socio-economic status was involved in the way emerging adults recollected their parents’ school involvement and experienced hope. In light of these findings, positive psychological hope interventions may prove instrumental in the promotion of positive youth development under crisis, facilitating well-being and flourishing in emerging adulthood.KeywordsCrisisIncomeHopeParental involvementEmerging adulthood