Young Adult Children Negotiating Intergenerational Cultural Expectations: Insights from Chinese Indonesian Families in Indonesia

Research on family life has often focused on nuclear family structure, overlooking the complexities of intergenerational dynamics. This study extends that scholarship by exploring how Chinese Indonesian young adult children navigate cultural expectations within intergenerational family contexts. We worked with 34 participants from 6 Chinese Indonesian families, comprising children, parents, grandparents and siblings, to document everyday settings where children strived to meet cultural expectations while simultaneously asserting their agency. Our engagement included 25 informal hangout sessions, 18 interviews, over 150 participant-generated photographs and 36 pages of field notes. Findings reveal that young adult children employed a range of tactics to negotiate intergenerational expectations and assert agencies, creating a habitable relational space for themselves and their family members. This study contributes to the broader literature on the interplay between structure and agency in young adult children’s everyday life, particularly within culturally layered family settings.