Mudam-se os tempos, mudam-se as vontades?

: transição para a idade adulta e expectativas sobre a conjugalidade e a parentalidade

Abstract

In the modern society, for young adults, getting married and having children is not a straight line of events like it used to be. This fact makes the transition to adulthood much more complex and dynamic comparing to the past societies (Brückner & Mayer, 2005; Lesnard et al., 2016). Young adults choose to focus first in their academic life, in their carreer (Plotnick, 2007), to get a well payed job and to achieve economic independence (Gassanov et al., 2008) and then, getting married or having children. The consequence is a change in life events sequence and a delay in the transition to adulthood (Arnett, 2001). This is a qualitative and exploratory research that analyses the correlation between the expectations of young adults about marriage or parenthood, and other variables such as, their religious background, family context and academic expectations. For this study, 18 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with young people aged since 19 to 25 years old (M = 21,4). The study comprises 10 girls and 8 boys, which were subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Young adults at these ages are in the phase called ‘Emerging Adulthood’ (Arnett, 2000), which encompasses late adolescence and early adulthood. This study reveals that specific factors have a major influence in the expectations of emerging adults about marriage and parenthood. These factors include the sense of “Myself”, “Family”, “Religion”, “Friends”, “School” and “Socioeconomic and professional situation”. The data of this study also suggest that emerging adults prefer marriage as opposed to only cohabitate with a partner. This preference applies, without significant differences, to both males and females, and between different religious groups. The study also indicates most religious young adults want to get married by church. It is important to continue the investigation about these themes and also to consider longitudinal studies, as these provide stronger data by analysing people throughout their lives.

Date of Award	13 Jul 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Costa Ramalho (Supervisor)