YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

262 The vast majority of young people report a good or very good relationship with their parents (77% with father and 85% with mother). After 2010, the share of young people who get along very well with their parents increased significantly, but at the same time the share of young people who described their understanding with their parents as poor or unbearable also increased approximately equally sharply. Findings regarding the growing group of young people with conflictive relationships with their parents are in line with a wider individualis- ation thesis of young people (this time in terms of communication and emotional deviations from the primary family), and at the same time co- incide also with the findings on young people’s increased levels of stress (see the chapter on health). 7.3  YOUTH AND INTERGENERATIONAL COOPERATION The demographic structure of the population in Slovenia is changing in a similar way to that in other developed countries. Declining fertility rates and longer life expectancy that result from improved health and social protection are both contributing to the increased number of old people and (relatively) reduced number of young people. In developed countries of the Western European type, intergenerational cooperation consists, among other things, of a considerable amount of long-term financial sup- port from parents and grandparents to their children and grandchildren. This flow of support is a consequence of the long education process of young people who form the most educated population group in human history (see Deželan, 2017), and their increasingly difficult entry into the labour market. The traditional flow of resources from the older generation to the younger generation, which has been the norm throughout human history, is increasingly being challenged, with older generations now re- ceiving more financial support than younger generations in some highly developed industrial societies with low fertility rates (e.g. Germany, Japan, Slovenia, Hungary) (Furstenberg, Hartnett, Kohli and Zissimopoulos, 2015: 33). A relatively benevolent welfare state with relatively good-quality