Special Aspects of the Transition to Adulthood of the Generation Y (Millennials)

This thesis is devoted to exploration of peculiarities and features which Generation Y or Millennials experience today during the process of becoming an adult. The thing is that Millennials is the first generation which is considered to be truly global due to some common things they experience at the same time: advent of the Internet and rapid development of telecommunications and technologies. These milestones are among the factors that shape Generation Y members’ life course and TA. The suggested research has a specific object defined as socio-demographic (or starting) events (such as: leaving of parental home, finishing school and getting professional education, first continuous employment, first partnership, getting married and first childbearing) events in the biographies of populations of the four specified countries on the European continent (Estonia, Finland, France and Russia). Consequently, the subject here is the patterns of the transition to adulthood performed by members of the Generation Y (or Millennials) from the nations previously mentioned and born between 1980 and 1999. The aim of the research is to make a comparison of the socio-demographic events which are defined as markers of the transition to adulthood among biographies in populations of Estonia, Finland, France and Russia. Therefore, the research also aims to construct compound understanding of those distinctions which identify the process of becoming an adult for Millennials.