Whole-Family Relationships
Most studies addressing whole-family relationships were supported by
emerging adults’ reports on the general properties of the overall family
system. Almost half of the participants from Crocetti and Meeus (2014)
mentioned significant changes within family relationships. Most of them
felt that they had more mutual family relationships characterized by
better communication, especially reported by individuals who had already
left the parental home, and by an increased reciprocity, mainly reported
by participants who were still living with their parents.
Tsai et al. (2013) verified that family respect declined during
adolescence and stabilized after this period, whereas the importance of
family to an emerging adult’s identity increased across emerging
adulthood. In addition, females presented a more solid sense of family
importance to identity during emerging adulthood (Crocetti & Meeus,
2014; Tsai et al., 2013).
Moreover, most emerging adults viewed family, or a specific family
member, as the most important contributor to meaning in life (Lambert et
al., 2010). Smit (2011) found that most emerging adults perceived family
rituals as promoters of a sense of belonging to the family system, as
well as of their uniqueness. Preserving family rituals was viewed as an
opportunity to connect with family history, contributing to the
development of an intergenerational self. Lastly, Kins et al. (2013)
showed that separation anxiety can be represented as a personal
characteristic, as a specific feature of the mother–child and
father-mother dyads, as well as of the family climate as a whole.
Support at the family level was investigated in three longitudinal
studies. Fuligni and Pedersen (2002) found increases in the sense of
obligation to assist, support, and respect the family from the period
extending from secondary school into young adulthood. Group differences
were verified: (a) offspring from two-parent families appeared more
willing to support the family in the future compared with those from
single-parent families; (b) Latin American and Filipino participants
reported a stronger sense of familial obligation compared with those
from East Asian and European backgrounds; (c) poorer participants
reported steeper increases in family obligation compared with those from
higher income families; and (d) females gave more importance to current
and future family support than males. Tsai et al. (2013) verified that
the sense of family obligation decreased during adolescence, with family
respect and future support stabilizing in the following years. Guan and
Fuligni (2016) showed that across the transition to young adulthood,
participants from European American backgrounds reported increases in
parental support, whereas this feature remained stable for those from
Asian and Latin American backgrounds. Females described higher levels of
parental and sibling support at the 12th grade, which remained constant
two and four years after high-school.