One interactive game:the relationship between parents and adult children in the contemporary family quotidian

Abstract

The goal of this work is to investigate the relationship between parents and adult children cohabitants in the domestic family sphere. This universe was researched through a field study, conducting semi-structured interviews with eight middle-class families in the city of Rio de Janeiro. There were interviewed – separately and then in pairs – four mother-son dyads, three mother-daughter dyads, and one father-daughter dyad. Among the themes that emerged in data analysis, we emphasize the interactive game in the relational instances, because we consider them aggregating other themes. We noticed that in the interactive dynamics there is the establishment of a relational game. Members of these dyads institute the limits between personal and collective spaces in the relationship and, at the same time, display capability to alternate positions, accommodating instant interests. Thus, these members establish an opportune context for the intergame, which turns the family space into a dynamic space that makes sense and enables meaning reconstructions.