Familial Vulnerability at the Transition from School to Work

Abstract

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, families have not only been seen as a place to recover from the demands of public life, but also as a constitutive element for particular vulnerabilities. Public life in general was greatly impacted by pandemic restrictions, thus, increasing the focus and visibility on dangers of regression and injury in one's own home. The article is based on narrative interviews, with emerging adults (18-27 years) who are hard to reach on their perception of the situation. 10 persons were interviewed initially in winter 2017/2018 and 10 other persons during the pandemic in the first half of 2021. This qualitative data was interpreted using the method of objective hermeneutics.

Under a magnifying glass, it becomes clear how childhood experiences of injury and neglect by one's own family still influence the ability to cope with the demands placed on them during the transition from school to work. This display of vulnerability in the described experiences is interpreted with regard to the visibility and latency of vulnerability. Exploring the link between trust and vulnerability deepens an understanding of how harmful events in childhood still influence vocational opportunities after leaving school. Depending on their age, the interviewees concentrate on the changed position within the family towards their parents. In this interplay between socializing processes of detachment and the rise from a dependent position to one of responsibility, the retrospective evaluation of the family and what was previously familiar in the world of life assumes a central position.