Families-Where to Go from Here? Sociological Perspectives on Contemporary Family Life (Plenary speaker)

Aim of the presentation is to discuss, using secondary sources, some aspects of the relationship between family change and the generational turnover. Particular attention is devoted to the Millennial Generation, a group of young people whose birth years roughly range from 1982 to late 1990s (22-38 years). Today, the Millennial Generation has grown old enough to have children. Millennials are clearly delaying marriage longer than any generation before them and are more tolerant than adults in other generations of a wide range of “nontraditional” behaviors related to marriage and parenting. However, Millennials parents consider having children central to their identity and Millennial fathers are taking active roles as parents. These challenging transformations may exert influence on the intergenerational transmission of values and should be of interest for a number of policy areas that impact on gender roles, families, women, men and children.