The formation of long-term unemployed young adults’ emotional capital during childhood: a Bourdieusian approach to emotional harm

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the long-term formation of unemployed young adults’ emotional capital and the development of emotional dispositions during childhood. We use Bourdieu’s work and the concept of emotional capital to draw attention to the emotional dynamics of family and peer relations during childhood. Emotional capital is related to parents’ emotional involvement and investment in the child’s well-being, and it encompasses emotional skills and assets that children can attain from family relations. The concept of emotional capital allows an examination of the child’s family and close environment, which shape the development of actors’ emotional inclinations and tendencies. Our data consists of 28 semi-structured life course interviews conducted in 2012−2013 with 28 long-term unemployed young adults aged 20−32 in central Finland. The data revealed that problems in family or peer dynamics were related to negative emotional dispositions, including a sense of not belonging or being an outsider and a lack of trust, which started to form during childhood, and which were translated and repeated in different settings in participants’ life courses.