Entre parents et enfants : liens et relations à l’épreuve du cheminement vers la vie adulte

The process of transition toward adulthood is changing historically and this affects the evolution of the relations between young people and their parents. Have such relations therefore become individualistic and elective or is there still something structural in them which relates to symbolic places that resist time ? How does the affinity relation forged between two adults interact with the irremovable bond between parents and children ? Based on a longitudinal survey which follows a group of young people over several years, this article shows that the ties of kinship retain a permanent nature, in particular in painful and conflicting family situations. Relations with family members are implemented more freely and in a more varied manner ; at the transition to adulthood, they become increasingly personalised. There is some ambiguity in such developments, however. For young people, becoming a parent turns out to be very embedded in their relations with their own parents which focuses on the ‘ two-fold inter-generational dimension’.