The other side of the coin: how do young people make sense of their experiences and challenges growing up in an extremely wealthy family?
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- Title
- The other side of the coin: how do young people make sense of their experiences and challenges growing up in an extremely wealthy family?
- Creator
- Beth Anfilogoff
- Supervisor
- Dr Rosemary Lodge and Dr Andreas Vassiliou.
- Date
- 2021
- Abstract
- We live in an increasingly uneven world and rates of psychological distress continue to grow, particularly in young people. A body of quantitative literature and limited qualitative literature suggests that young people from affluent backgrounds experience normal psychological distress that goes overlooked whilst also struggling with contextual stressors unique to their wealthy environments. However no paper to date explores the experiences of young people from the most affluent group in society, the 0.1%. With a significant number of counselling psychologists working in independent practice, we may meet these young people in our consulting rooms. This study aimed to understand the unique challenges that these young people face and offer relevant clinical implications. Taking a realist ontological position and a relativist epistemological position I asked what are the experiences and challenges of growing up in a high net-worth (HNW) family?. Participants could selfidentify as belonging to a HNW family or a definition of £7.8 million in family assets was offered. Six participants (five males, one female) aged 18-25 participated in semi-structured interviews. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to create four superordinate themes with nine subordinate themes: 1) Battle for a Sense of Identity 2) A Guilty Secret 3) Relational Disruption and the Bubble of Wealth and 4) Trapped and Entangled in an Affluent Web. Participants described struggling to make sense of and justify their privileged place in the world, and feeling that their wealth must be kept a secret whilst attempting to make authentic connections. The implications for clinical practice include that practitioners should explicitly explore the role of money with HNW clients, name the cultural process of silencing around wealth and consider including HNW status in their collaborative formulations.
- Subject
- Identity (Psychology)|Wealth--Psychological aspects|Young adults|Distress (Psychology)
- Psychology and Counselling
- Extent
- 143 pages
- Format
- Publisher
- Regent's University London
- degree
- PhD in Counselling Psychology
- Description
- EThOS ID: 851316
- Language
- English
- Date Issued
- 2021
- Type
- Thesis & Dissertation
- Rights Holder
- Regent's University London & Beth Anfilogoff
- Item sets
- Theses or Dissertation