NCJ Number
219783
Journal
Journal of Adolescent Research Volume: 22 Issue: 5 Dated: September 2007 Pages: 550-571
Date Published
September 2007
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This longitudinal study of 102 German students attending their last year of college examined the impact of the transition from university to work life on their sense of well-being and their relationship with their parents.
Abstract
After graduating from university, both men and women felt better physically and psychologically. The transition from being a college student to work life changed the boundary conditions of the child-parent relationship. Financial dependence was reduced, spatial distance increased, and adult roles became more similar to those of the parents. Consequently, sharing of information and conversations about problems increased as convergence of parents' and child's goals increased. Conflicts related to the close interaction of parents and children living together decreased. The increase in children's relative power was not a significant factor in the parent-child relationship. Working women still reported being less powerful than their fathers; whereas, men reported feeling more powerful than their mothers both before and after graduating from college and entering the work force. While in their last year of college, the 102 students completed scales from the Network of Relationships Inventory and symptoms checklists. Four years later, 51 employed participants of the initial sample were contacted and interviewed about their sense of well-being and their relationship with their parents. 3 tables and 63 references