Parents and sons in Italy: towards a “flexible” socialization?

The specific aims of this paper are to analyze, a) peculiarities of the transition to adulthood for young people in Italy in comparison with other European countries; b) changes in the modalities of interaction between parents and sons with reference to the relationships of authority and regulations in their daily interactions; c) the existence of a substantial convergence in the perceptions of young people and adults with regard to educational choices, the reference models, and the modalities of family interactions. In this perspective, the socialization process is interpreted as a dynamic process in which vertical-hierarchical mechanisms of socialization are replaced by ‘horizontal’ ones based on intra-generational comparison and on intergenerational bargaining. The preliminary data confirm and reinforce the hypothesis that there are no explicit conflicts between the generations. The family ‘climate’, i.e., the relationship between parents and sons and daughters, is characterized by dialog and exchanges of views; the rules in the family are flexible, often shared or negotiated by sons and daughters. The presence of reciprocal relations also characterizes the adults’ perceptions