It should be no surprise to find out that the family is the primary and most important source of dependence for young people: after all, youth transitions constitute a process of progressive achievement of independence, from a state of childhood characterised by total dependence on family sources. What is surprising is how semidependence has been protracted in recent years, and how reaching a level of independence has been increasingly postponed. The phase of ‘young adulthood’ (or ‘emerging adulthood’, as defined by Arnett) is not simply a psychological phenomenon, but is also (and mostly) a social one, shaped by the structural conditions around young people (the ‘welfare mixes’). As discussed in Chapter 4, this phase is also characterised by a protracted state of semi-dependence linked to the progressive deterioration of the possibility of being able to survive without the use of family sources. Importantly, policies have reinforced this sense of semi-dependence in some respects, and student support policies assume young people's dependence on their parents, especially in Italy and England, as we have seen in Part 1. The systems of student support in those countries assume a co-contribution or complete reliance on family sources.

So why is reliance on family sources so problematic? Wouldn't young people be better off depending on family sources than, for example, being forced to be independent through labour market participation when they are too young and too unqualified to work? It is true that without additional sources of support from their family many young people would simply not be able to afford to go to university. While this is a fair argument against demonising ‘dependence’ as an intrinsically negative process – after all, we are all interdependent and fragile individuals navigating through the insecure path of life – the problem with family dependence is that some young people are more dependent than others, and their capacity for independence depends on their access to unequally available resources. Young adults are often described in popular culture as those who choose to postpone their independence (that is, not wanting to grow up), as if independence was an individual choice. This is a view that has, in the last few decades, been backed up by academics, such as the notion of ‘emerging adulthood’ formulated by Arnett.