University students remain closely tied to their parents—emotionally and otherwise
Really great article in Macleans Magazine looking at how important family is for students these days. It is a long article but well worth the read.
University students remain closely tied to their parents—emotionally and otherwise
Experts aren’t surprised by these results. According to Sarah Brauner–Otto, an associate professor in the department of sociology at McGill University and a social demographer who studies global family change, your most important relationships are not necessarily with those you spend the most time with, but with the people who shape your life. (That’s why it also makes sense that the second-most common answer is a romantic partner.)
Still, it may be surprising to realize just how much influence Canadian parents have on their university-aged children when we consider the common stereotype of distant, if not downright tense, parent-teen relationships. According to Peter Lenco, an assistant professor in the department of sociology at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S., these portrayals are based on a “white settler mythos from the ’60s and ’70s” that has little bearing on the economic, social and cultural realities of being a young person in 2020. “It’s part of a pop cultural myth that is still perpetuated in Canada,” says Lenco.
“But the importance of parents for children is really universal. Family has been and continues to be of central importance to people across the world. It may look different, but it’s still the thing that shapes people.”
Click here for the entire article.
