oa Niet geaccepteerd door de familie: een kwestie van ‘moeilijk zijn’ of ‘anders zijn’?2

Not accepted by the family: ‘being difficult’ or ‘being different’? .

Using data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) and combining a quantitative and a qualitative approach (N = 7.151 and n = 43, respectively), this study investigates the mechanisms underlying a lack of acceptance by one’s family. From the total NKPS-sample 12,1 per cent did not feel (entirely) accepted by their family. Theoretical assumptions were that people may not feel accepted by their family because they are ‘difficult’, e.g. by exhibiting personal problems; another reason might be that they are ‘different’, for instance because they have made non-traditional life course transitions or differ from their parents in educational level or religious preference. Both quantitative and qualitative results confirm the first assumption rather than the second. Qualitative results revealed a gender difference in the mechanisms involved in a lack of acceptance by one’s family.