Social Studies Collection No. 34 The Transition to Adulthood in Spain 34Economic Crisis and Late Emancipation Almudena Moreno Mínguez (coordinator) Antonio López Peláez Sagrario Segado Sánchez-Cabezudo 1 WelfArE Projects. ThE spiriT of ”la CAixA”. Social Studies Collection No. 34 The Transition to Adulthood in Spain Economic Crisis and Late Emancipation Almudena Moreno Mínguez (coordinator) Antonio López Peláez Sagrario Segado Sánchez-Cabezudo With the collaboration of Alberto Juliá Cano Enrique Crespo Ballesteros Publication: ”la Caixa” Welfare Projects Author: Almudena Moreno Mínguez (coord.), Antonio López Peláez, Sagrario Segado Sánchez-Cabezudo Translated by: Jed Rosenstein Design and layout: CEgE Coordination of publication: Fellowship Programs and Social Studies © Almudena Moreno Mínguez, Antonio López Peláez, Sagrario Segado Sánchez-Cabezudo © ”la Caixa” Welfare Projects, 2012 Av. Diagonal, 621 - 08028 Barcelona ALMuDENA MoRENo MíNguEz is Professor of Sociology at the visiting scholar at the School of Social Welfare (University of university of Valladolid, Spain. She has a PhD in sociology from California, Berkeley, USA), the University at potsdam (Germany) the Autonomous university of Barcelona and is the author of and Americana University in nicaragua. He is the director of many publications on young people, family change, welfare Comunitania. International Journal of Social Work and Social states and the situation of women. She has been a visiting scholar Sciences. He recently served as editor of the monograph «Juventud at oxford university, the university of Turin, the university of y trabajo social» [Youth and Social Work], (Revista de Estudios de Chicago and the university of gothenburg. Most recently she Juventud 97, 2012). edited the monograph «Family well-being: European perspectives» (Social Indicators Research 49, 2012), and she has published SagrArio SeGADo SánCHez-CABezUDo is an assistant articles in European Societies, Revista de Educación and Young: professor of Social Work and Social Services at the Universidad Nordic Journal of Youth Research, among others. She is the co- nacional de educación a Distancia, UneD [national Distance author of the Informe de Juventud [Youth Report] 2008. education University]. He has a phD in social work and a bachelor’s degree in psychology. His research is focused on the analysis of Antonio López peLáez is a Full professor of Social Work social problems in families, youth and childhood and on methods and Social Services in the Department of Social Work, Faculty of of social intervention. He has been a visiting researcher at the Law, of the Universidad nacional de educación a Distancia, University of California and the University of potsdam. His recent UneD [national Distance education University], the largest publications include Nuevas tendencias en trabajo social con public university in Spain. He has a phD in philosophy and familias: una propuesta para la práctica desde el empowerment [new Sociology. His research interests include: analysis of social trends in social work with families: a proposal for an empowerment- problems of interculturality, methods of social intervention, based practice] (2011). intersections of new technologies and social work. He has been ntents Co TABLE oF Contents F o ABLE Presentation 7 IV. School to work transitions and health 71 T 4.1. Young people’s transitions by education level and gender 73 Introduction 9 4.2. Integration in the labour market, professional careers Background and justification for the study 9 and overqualification 82 Hypothesis, objectives and methodology 10 4.3. Young people’s health 87 Structure of the study 13 4.4. The importance of education, employment and health 92 I. Theoretical framework: the interpretative context V. Young people’s transitions, social services and policies 96 of transitions to adulthood 14 5.1. Social policy and young people’s transitions 99 1.1. Major theoretical paradigms on transitions to adulthood 15 5.2. Young people, participation and failed transitions: 1.2. Destandardisation and individualisation: the new situation What is the role of social services? 105 of young people 19 5.3. Social services and preventing vulnerability in young 1.3. Transitional models in different types of welfare regimes 22 people 109 5.4. From social services to Ngos: a two-way street? 111 II. The processes of transition to adulthood in Europe 5.5. The need for youth policies in times of economic crisis 113 from a comparative perspective 26 Conclusion 2.1. Attitudinal profiles toward transitions to adulthood: 115 a typological analysis 27 General conclusions 115 2.2. Social assessment of transitional markers of entry into adulthood 28 Specific conclusions 117 2.3. Lifestyles of Europe’s young people 35 Challenges for the 21st century 121 2.4. School to work transitions among young people in Europe 40 Methodological appendix 124 III. Family and residential transitions 49 3.1. Emancipation and residential transitions of young Bibliography 127 people in Spain 49 3.2. Determining factors in emancipation paths in times Index of tables and graphs 138 of crisis 53 3.3. Forming a couple and a family 61 3.4. Lifestyles and family typologies 66 N o PresentatioN resentati P Youth is the stage in life in which individuals prepare to assume resources needed to become independent, the years dedicated the responsibilities of adulthood, define their life projects and to education and training have increased. As a consequence, establish their future priorities and objectives. To accomplish many young couples end up delaying having children until they these things young people must have opportunities and are well into their thirties. incentives that stimulate and foster their personal development and engage them in becoming active participants in the The economic and employment crisis that Spain has been improvement of society. suffering since 2008 has increased the difficulty of the transition to adulthood, reducing opportunities and increasing insecurity. The educational opportunities and personal and consumer This lack of opportunity can undermine the confidence young freedoms of young people today are incomparably greater than people need to construct viable projects to achieve independence, those of their parents and grandparents. However, uncertainties thus, increasing the risk of social exclusion and conflict with older about the future and the diversity of possible life paths have generations. turned the transition to adulthood into a complex and potentially difficult process. The authors of this study review the main processes involved in the transition to adulthood among Spanish young people. They For example, in recent decades we have seen a significant delay do so from a dual perspective. First, they compare the Spanish in the age at which young people take on the tasks and functions situation with that of other European countries, distinguishing traditionally associated with adult life. In Spain, statistics indicate different models and identifying the specificities of the Spanish that on average young people do not leave their parents’ home case. Secondly, they analyse the extent to which the economic until they are close to thirty years old. At the same time, as it has crisis is transforming, or perhaps accentuating, certain tendencies become more difficult to find a stable job that provides the in the way young people approach adult responsibilities. 7 The authors also analyse youth policies and their effectiveness in the family and the labour market, key processes which determine facilitating the process of insertion of young people into society. not only the well-being of young people, but also the future Their analysis focuses on governments at the local, regional and growth and cohesiveness of our society. N national levels, together with a review of European union policy. o Finally, they examine ways in which policy can be changed to jaime Lanaspa Gatnau increase its effectiveness. Executive Director of ”la Caixa” resentati Welfare Projects and Chief Executive officer of the P With this study, the Social Studies Collection of the ”la Caixa” ”la Caixa” Foundation Foundation seeks to provide data on the difficulties young people face in becoming independent and in carrying out adult roles in Barcelona, July 2012 8 N o CTI u D INTRoDuCTIoN o NTR I Background and justification for the study one of the most important changes we go through in life is the process of integration into adulthood. Although the meaning In a time of deep transformation, with an economic crisis that has and stages of this process have changed, there are still clear hit young people particularly hard, it has become a priority to steps in the process to acquire autonomy and take on the analyse their transition to adulthood. In this period of economic responsibilities of independence. Today, these changes occur in instability, young people around the world are calling for change a social environment characterised by individualisation and de- in the social model of globalisation and the mechanisms of standardisation. By individualisation, we refer to the progressive political and institutional representation which have hitherto separation of personal decisions from traditional social norms guided the capitalist economic system. that determined the life trajectories of young people in the past, such as leaving the family home, finishing school, entering the While our objective is not to analyse the well-known 15-M labour market, forming