Gli studi sulla transizione ai ruoli adulti hanno via via evidenziato un cambiamento di soggettività dei giovani italiani rispetto alle generazioni precedenti. Cambiano i tempi e i percorsi di transizione, ma anche il sistema di valori e le priorità che orientano le scelte di vita. Nuove concezioni dei confini sociali della categoria “giovane” si intrecciano con il perdurare di meccanismi di disuguaglianza che influenzano modi e tempi del passaggio da una situazione di dipendenza dalla famiglia a una di autonomia o interdipendenza.
A partire da tale quadro, il progetto START si concentra sulla fascia di popolazione giovanile che é stata efficacemente definita con il termine “adulti emergenti” (Arnett, 2000). Secondo tale approccio i giovani tra i 16 e 25 anni nelle società contemporanee non sono né adolescenti né adulti. Essi attraversano un periodo di esplorazione in cui possono testare una “varietà di possibili direzioni di vita nell’amore, nel lavoro e nelle visioni del mondo” perché “non sono ancora entrati nelle responsabilità durature che sono normative nell’età adulta” (Arnett, 2000, p. 470).
In particolare, il progetto indaga in che misura alcuni valori individuali (religiosità; etica e valori socio-politici; ruoli di genere), in relazione con quelli dei genitori e del gruppo di pari, possano influenzare il modo in cui gli adolescenti progettano il proprio futuro. Oltre agli orientamenti valoriali, si terrà conto di tre importanti fattori di stratificazione sociale e di differenziazione culturale: origine etnica, classe sociale e genere. Inoltre, il progetto presta attenzione all’interazione tra valori individuali e vincoli/opportunità a livello di contesto di residenza.
Il disegno di ricerca prevede una survey su un campione rappresentativo di giovani iscritti al primo e quinto anno di una scuola secondaria superiore in Italia, con la somministrazione di un questionario a circa 3400 studenti/studentesse, ai loro genitori e insegnanti. I dati individuali saranno collegati a dati contestuali, a livello scolastico e di area di residenza.
Il progetto START, di durata biennale, è coordinato da Simona Guglielmi (PI, Università di Milano) e Renzo Carriero (Università di Torino) ed è stato finanziato dal MUR – Ministero Università Ricerca (Bando Prin 2022 –Settore ERC SH3; 16/10/2023).
START: Surfing Transition to Adulthood: Resources and Timing
(PRIN 2022 – Settore ERC SH3)
Objectives and Research Questions
The START project aims to provide a broad and complex picture of the impact of intergenerational and intercultural transmission of values in the early formation of preferences and expectations on the transition to adulthood in Italy. In addition, the interactions with economic and institutional context will be considered.
The research questions that the project intends to answer are: To what extent do expectations about the timing of adult role transitions and conceptions of adulthood differ among adolescents? How can young people’s values influence the how, when and why of their life plans? What role do the values of parents, teachers and peer groups play in shaping preferences or young people’s plans for independence and transition to adulthood? How do contextual and structural constraints and opportunities influence their representation of the future?
The START project aims to explain individual differences in adolescents’ implicit theories of the life course (conception of adulthood, expected timing and planning of home leaving and parenthood) in Italy by combining the life course approach with the literature on value change and cultural beliefs’ formation. It focuses on different micro-level mechanisms while testing whether and how cultural factors influence the early formation of individual preferences about the timing and motivations of adult role transitions. In particular, the project investigates to what extent individual values and intergenerational/intercultural discordance/conflict around values influences adolescents’ expectations of the life course and their plans for the future. Young people are requested to balance their plans for their transition to adult roles with institutional and economic constraints and resources. The term “emerging adults” was proposed to label this phase of life when individuals go through a period of exploration in which they test “various possibilities in love, work, and worldviews” because “they have not yet entered the enduring responsibilities that are normative in adulthood” (Arnett, 2000, p. 470).
Drawing on the literature, the value orientations considered cover the following fields: gender and family values; religious and ethno-national values; socio-political values. At the same time, three important factors of social stratification and cultural differentiation are considered : ethnic origin (natives vs migratory background), social class and gender. Finally, specific attention is paid to the interaction with contextual constraints and opportunities at local level.
Research design
A school-based sampling will be implemented to conduct a survey of teenagers, their parents and teachers. The sampling design will adopt criteria typically used in similar research at the national (e.g., ISTAT 2016) and international levels (e.g., CILS4EU project). Overall, the study will cover about 80 secondary schools/160 classes and up to 3,400 students. A final sample of about 1000 parents and 1000 teachers is expected.
As regard the questionnaire, many questions will come from European Values Study (EVS Italy 2017), European Social Survey (ESS round 9, module “Timing of Life” collected in Italy in 2018), and International Social Survey Programme (ISSP, modules “Family and changing gender roles V” and “National identity and citizenship” , which will be collected in Italy in late 2022). This allows the triangulation of results of START’s students, parents and teachers surveys with the most recent data describing Italian and European populations aged 18 and over. In addition, to investigate young people’s social norms and behavioural intentions, the questionnaire will also include so-called “vignettes” (i.e., fictitious but realistic descriptions of scenarios in which certain items are made to vary randomly among the interviewees in order to estimate their causal effect on the responses).
The research design enables the integration of several sources of contextual data with individual ones. First, class/school-level information will be obtained by aggregating data collected at the individual level (classmates and teachers). Second, a questionnaire will be administered to the principals of each school to provide additional school-level information. Finally, socio-economic characteristics of the municipality where the school is located/individual lives (based on official statistics) will be linked to individual questionnaires.
Project lifetime
October 2023-September 2025
Funding
The START Project is financed by the Italian Ministry for Education under the PRIN 2022 grant scheme (Bando Prin 2022– Settore ERC SH3 “The Social World and Its Diversity”).
Contributo MUR: 202.000 euro
Team
Simona Guglielmi (Principal Investigator), Assistant Professor, University of Milan
Renzo Carriero (Unit Coordinator), Associate Professor, University of Turin
Sonia Bertolini, Associate Professor, University of Turin
Two research fellows (to be hired)
The START project will be integrated in the wider context of the activities carried out by spsTREND Lab (www.spstrend.it), a resource available to the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan. In particular, the START Project is connected to the MAYBE project (PI: Simona Guglielmi).
Contacts
Simona Guglielmi, University of Milan (PI), simona.guglielmi@unimi.it
Renzo Carriero, University of Turin, renzo.carriero@unito.it
Foto di Helena Lopes su Unsplash