Abstract
The current study aims to describe the relationships between emerging
adults and their families and how these evolve over emerging adult
years. Through a systematic review of the literature, we extracted data
from 38 empirical studies, which met the following inclusion criteria:
published since 2000, included emerging adults and/or their relatives as
participants, and focused on family relationships. The results showed
that most studies examined the parent-child relationship, providing
insight into the relational renegotiations occurring during emerging
adulthood and into inter-generational discrepancies in the way that
parents and children viewed their relationships. Family support was also
found to be of substantial relevance during this developmental stage. In
addition, sex, age, living arrangements, family structure, socioeconomic
status (SES), ethnicity and cultural contexts emerged as key factors
influencing family relationships in varied ways. Implications for future
research include the need to consider the family as the unit of analysis
and to collect data from multiple family members; to conduct
longitudinal studies in order to better understand changes in family
relationships across emerging adulthood; and to focus on family
relationships beyond the parent-child dyads, namely on sibling and
grandparent-grandchildren relationships. In conclusion, this review
provided a renewed perspective on family relationships during the
transition to adulthood, contributing to clinical insights on individual
and familial shifts in the fast-paced and complex contemporary context.