Young people: family, money, autonomy

Abstract

In Portugal, where over a period of twenty years we have seen young people as rebels, young people as an institutional and almost corporative fact, from young people as subjects of social disturbance to young people as a model of the social image, the phenomenon provides extremely rich resources for analysis and has already been the subject of several studies. On the basis of the results of a survey on Portuguese young people carried out by ICS, this article analyses the implications for the family of young people's present social situation and in particular those related to obtaining money. In the context of the recent changes in Portuguese society, the author analyses some of the functions, above all economic, carried out by the family and the different social strategies adopted in relation to young people. Thus the aim of the article is to detect the different methods used by young people to obtain money i.e. monetary dependence/independence including not only that related to work but also in relation to the family and to spending.