Young with a heart for family

In this research project we ask young people about their dreams and expectations. We write about their emotions, their talents, their ideals. Our focus lies on the family life of young people and the family they dream to build themselves one day.

Their opinion

With the project 'Young with a heart for family', we ask if young people are still interested in family, or reluctant towards the concept. Even though adolescents and young adults are mostly looking to find their own place in life, they still seem to value family ties and relationships.

The past year we have researched what young people think about their own family and what kind of family they see for themselves in the future. The research was conducted by multiple project groups consisting of Family Studies students. The research results will be published in a book in the fall of 2015. Even the opinion of adolescents themselves will be included in the book: we are conducting focus groups about our research results to acquire their vision on our research subjects.

Subjects

The research subjects focus on the inner world of adolescents, as well as on their family life and on their first steps as individuals in our society:

• The emotional world of teenagers
• Young people searching for identity in Islamic families
• Ideological parenting ideals in Muslim families
• Father images of teenagers
• Do parents and children experience financial stress in different ways?
• Parental involvement in youth sports
• Generation Y in the workplace
• What is a youth friendly living environment according to young people?

Intelligible for young people, enlightening for professionals

The result will be a publication that is understandable for young people and their parents, naturally, but that is also illuminating for professionals of volunteers in youth- or social work, students in relevant programs and other interested parties.

Let them do the talking

By means of focus groups, we listened to what young people had to say on these subjects themselves. We invited about a hundred 16- to 19-year olds from high schools in Brussels and presented them with a couple of thought-provoking statements regarding the research subjects. Their responses make up the last chapter of the publication, which will be presented on December 4th.