How Does the Family Relationship Evolve Between the Ages of 20 and 30?

Through a nearly decade-long longitudinal study (2015–2024) tracking 1,500 young adults in Spain, the TAE Project analyzed how family bonds change over time and their direct impact on young people’s “flourishing.”

What Does “Flourishing” Truly Mean in Adulthood?

When discussing well-being, we often focus on temporary happiness or being cheerful. However, the term flourishing encompasses a much broader and deeper dimension. Flourishing means feeling like a good person, perceiving respect from your environment, building healthy and meaningful social relationships, feeling optimistic about the future, and, above all, leading a life with purpose and meaning.

To understand how family influences this process, we evaluated three fundamental pillars of parental relationships: parental warmth and involvement, autonomy support, and parental control.

Key Findings: What Did We Discover After Nearly a Decade of Research?

1. Affection and Closeness Do Not Disappear

Warmth, family involvement, and personal autonomy support remain high and stable throughout young adults’ twenties. The family continues to serve as an essential emotional sanctuary.

2. Control Naturally Decreases

As the years progress, parental control decreases significantly, particularly behavioral control. This decline is healthy and expected, fostering more horizontal, egalitarian, and respectful adult-to-adult relationships.

3. The Impact of Autonomy Support on the Future

Young adults reporting the highest levels of “flourishing” at age 29 were those whose families had supported their autonomy during earlier years, allowing them to make their own choices, refraining from imposing decisions, and offering consistent affection and trust.

4. The Long Shadow of Psychological Control

Conversely, the use of psychological control, such as emotional blackmail or guilt-induction (“you make me feel guilty when you don’t do what I want”) early in emerging adulthood, predicts lower levels of well-being and flourishing nearly a decade later. Psychological control leaves lasting marks on young adults’ mental health.

Practical Implications: Providing Support While Respecting Boundaries

Fostering youth mental health does not require families to step away entirely; rather, it requires transforming how they are present.

Family remains a cornerstone of well-being, provided it adapts from a model of supervision to one of mutual respect and ongoing support.

García-Mendoza, M. C., Parra, Á., Díez, M., Reina-Flores, M. C., Lizaso, I., & Sánchez-Queija, I. (2026). Growing Apart or Growing Together? Family and Flourishing in Emerging Adulthood: A Longitudinal Analysis of Spanish University Students. Oral communication presented at the EA 2026 Conference, Emerging Adults on the Road to Maturity, Poznań (Poland), June 29–July 1, 2026. https://hdl.handle.net/11441/188858

The Transition to Adulthood in Spain (TAE) Project relies on the joint institutional collaboration of researchers from the Universidad de Sevilla, the Escuela Universitaria de Osuna (an affiliated center of the Universidad de Sevilla), and the Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea.
Project PID2024-155825NB-I00 financed by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, UE.