Teenage futures: Parents’ roles and values in contexts of change

Speaker: Professor Sarah Irwin (Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds and Director of the Centre for Research into Families, the Life Course and Generations).

The current restructuring of educational and labour market arrangements create new inequalities, and new dilemmas, for young people. In this context, what roles do parents play in supporting their teenage children as they approach early adulthood? I will offer an analysis of data generated across three rounds of interviews with parents, from 2008 – 2014, and explore how they support their children, and seek to guide them in decisions about education, training and employment. The qualitative longitudinal data sheds light on parents’ values, and on inequalities in the range of possibilities for drawing on, and mobilising resources, at key moments. Additionally it offers some insights into parental perspectives on the changing structure of opportunity for contemporary young adults as part of a wider analysis of social class and generational transmission in a context of extensive social change.

Sarah has published extensively in the areas of family, parenting, youth and social inequalities.