Internalized flexibility and relative deprivation: subjective responses to adult transitions in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

This article presents the preliminary findings of a study which explores attitudes to striving amongst thirty-six young middle class adults aged between 22 and 32 in the Republic of Ireland. It draws heavily on a similar study conducted by Bradley and Devadason (2008) which found that young people negotiating complex adult transitions in the UK responded with internalized flexibility (optimism, adaptability, and resourcefulness). Striving in all contexts is based on a set of contingent expectations that if the individual tries hard to achieve certain goals, specific or general results will follow. However, the collapse of the banking system, subsequent economic recession and housing crisis in the Republic of Ireland since 2008 have dramatically altered the contingent expectations on which striving of young adults within Irish society has been based since the 1990s. This study asks if those negotiating adult transitions have responded with internalized flexibility in this transformed economic context. It also examines whether the significant inter-generational disparities in the rewards delivered by striving which have emerged since 2008 (Chailloux Klein and Wilson 2016) have led to increased levels of relative deprivation (Gurr 1970, Bernburg et al 2009).