Expanding Our Understanding of Family From A Millennial’s POV

2023 Masters Thesis Study #2 by Emily T. Dawson, M.A.

Abstract: Continuing on from “I’ll Name My Own Family, Thank You!”: Exploring Young Adults Understanding of Naming and Family Identity” (Study 1), this research continues to explore the “what” people are communicating in order to define their families for themselves and to others by gathering a different perspective from the Millennial generational cohort. The social and legal constructs at play are considered as to how they relate to Millennials defining and identifying familial ties. This work is situated as a contribution to the discourse dependence perspective, posing surnames as one way Millennials may communicate their definition of family and negotiate their family identity. To produce this pilot study, I used interpretive thematic analysis exploring the data collected from 5 transcripts of Zoom participant interviews. Out of my investigation, four overarching themes were produced regarding this group of millennials: (1) their feelings about their generational cohort, (2) their understanding of “family”, (3) their perception of the social norms of family, and (4) their thoughts on the role names plays in the perception of “family.”

Keywords: family communication, millennials, surnames, discourse dependence perspective, qualitative interviews