The extended family in transitions to adulthood: a dynamic approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to develop a dynamic understanding of the significance of the extended family in young people’s transitions to adulthood. Previous research has tended either to overlook the role of family altogether, to focus on parents, or to study different types of kinship bonds separately. Based on contextualized analysis of biographical interviews with three generations in 23 Norwegian families, the article suggests that similar dynamics of family support for young people may be valid across different types of relationships to extended family members (grandparents, step-parents, siblings, aunts and uncles). A multi-dimensional typology is presented, distinguishing four roles played by extended family in young people’s transitions to adulthood: inspirational, sharing, detached and distanced. Interview data are used to demonstrate how these can be acted out in different ways, and that shifting on the continuums between them depends on varying degrees of involvement and interaction. The aim of the article is to contribute, by way of thick descriptions and exploratory conceptual development, to a more dynamic understanding of the ways that members of the extended family can be important in transitions to adulthood.