ABSTRACT
This chapter presents and evaluates the possibility of two “ideal type” scenarios: the Increased Individualization Scenario; and the Increased Familism Scenario. An Increased Individualization Scenario assumes a growing emphasis on individual pursuits, choice, autonomy, and self-determination in the timing and nature of family-related transitions to adulthood and the unfolding of the life course. While the Increased Individualization perspective on youth transitions in post-industrial societies theorizes a general decline in the centrality of “traditional” formal family bonds in young people’s lives, the Increased Familism Scenario assumes the opposite. The chapter reviews economic, technological, cultural and socio-demographic trends widely accepted as instrumental in shaping the life course of young adults and their families. It considers their broader implications for the future of intergenerational relations in aging families. Young adult members of the “boomerang age” have and can continue to forge alternative and innovative solutions to problems facing individuals and their families.
