Exploring the New Family: Parents and Their Young Adults in Transition

by Kathleen O'Connell Chesto

The years following high school graduation to the mid-twenties hold the most serious of all developmental tasks for families. Parents are attempting to move on to a life no longer focused around children, while helping their young adults become established in their own lives. Parents anguish over when it is best to offer insights from experience and when it is best to let young adults learn from their own failures. When does advice become interference? When does a little financial support become financial dependence? When does a safety net become a snare? The goal of the family is for young adults to succeed in developing their own views and separate identities without emotionally cutting themselves off from their parents. Negotiating this period of family life has become increasingly difficult in our society simply because society is changing so rapidly. Introducing the idea of a new phase of life called post-adolescence, Kathleen O’Connell Chesto takes a groundbreaking look at young adults emerging in North American families and the influences, within the family and beyond, that have shaped them. Based on her experience of launching three successful young adults and having interviewed over 150 parents and young adults, the author explores the following new issues and challenges facing young adults and their parents
a sense of perspective
a sense of self
a sense of place
a sense of family
a sense of security
a sense of forgiveness
a sense of the sacred Reading this book together, parents and young adults can come to fresh understandings and develop new ways of nurturing their relationship during this time of transition.

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2001