Much is written about the conflict between generations. Such tensions are at their strongest in the teens when the parental controls of childhood give way to the freedoms of youth while, at the same time, holding onto the sentiments of respect and dependency that children feel for their parents. Parent–child relationships tend to become more relaxed in young adulthood, when the transition from education to work defines this phase of the life course and parents’ emotional and material support is called for.

Stability and change

A continuing theme of family relationships is what the future will offer for young people and this is where we are witnessing unparalleled technologically driven and political change in which population movement, neo-nationalism and widening inequality are major features. Thus, the recession arising from the 2007/08 global banking crisis is just the most recent example of disrupted capitalist economies, bailed out by government funding, of which young people leaving education can bear the brunt. What worked for their parents in the transition to adulthood, including finding job opportunities, building a career and forming a family, is unlikely to work in the same way for them. The choices they must make are laden with risk and uncertainty in a way that was unknown until relatively recently. Most recently COVID-19 has created societies in standstill mode with restrictions in all spheres of everyday life, presenting a completely new challenge for young and old.

The situation is also compounded by the fact that even before the coronavirus pandemic broke out many features of modern society were already changing at high speed, especially in the labour market as the consequence of digitalisation. The younger generation is confronted with a permanently changing world and transforming opportunities for learning and working whatever the outcome of the pandemic. According to a group of leading life course scientists (Settersten et al, 2020, p 38), ‘the pandemic is reshaping transitions and trajectories in every domain of life’. Virologists and the World Health Organization (WHO) are warning that the effects of the second wave will be more serious and put more people at risk when a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus will not be available for everyone.