Sociology
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Item Seeking stability: A preliminary exploration of Canadian young adults’ financial goals(Taylor & Francis, 2021-03-20) Mazurik, Kathrina; Knudson, SarahYoung people’s financial lives have undergone change, with delays and struggles attaining stable employment, home ownership, and financial independence. Despite such change, research on the future thinking of young adults suggests the persistent significance of such financial milestones. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 young adults aged 18-32 in a mid-sized, prosperous Canadian city, inquiring into their goals and perceptions of their future financial lives in light of their current situations. Findings revealed young adults’ overarching desire for financial security, notably through goals of a steady job, debt reduction, and home ownership. These findings affirm that during this transitional time of life, many young adults are involved in a search for security, hoping to attain financial independence and stability in a conventionally linear and upward fashion. This search for security and stability manifests differently across sociodemographic positions (namely age, gender, birthplace, and socioeconomic status), reflecting differing experiences of precarity, cultural representations of the life course, and positions along financial trajectories. Participants’ visions of their financial futures also appear to connect to the factors in the local context, including its relative prosperity, persistence of traditional gender roles, and a relatively modest cost of living compared to other urban centres in Canada.Item Stuck in the Nest? A Review of the Literature on Coresidence in Canada and the United States(Taylor & Francis, 2020-03-03) Mazurik, Kathrina; Knudson, Sarah; Tanaka, YukikoAn historically high proportion of Canadian and American young adults are living with their parents. This trend has stimulated research and theorization of “coresidence,” yet recent reviews of the subject are lacking. In this paper, we examine literature on coresiding families spanning the last two decades, focusing discussion on their economic, cultural, gendered, familial, and psychological characteristics. We argue that theoretical understanding of this topic is expanding, that knowledge of this issue is improving in nuance, but that, despite these encouraging trends, researchers have neglected to examine the actual practices and consequences of coresidence. As a result, the field offers little guidance to parents, young adults, and family counselors. We recommend that researchers expand their methodological approaches, introducing more longitudinal and qualitative designs to capture the day-to-day practices of these families and the consequences of coresidence over time. In addition, we offer some guiding principles for practitioners working with young adults and their parents, based on our findings.