Little is known about the transition to adulthood in traditional, developing countries such as Saudi Arabia. Previous research in other countries has revealed the importance of considering parents' support during the transition to adulthood. Thus, the purpose of this research was to examine how two generations negotiated the transition to adulthood. We asked the research question, What are the joint projects in which parents and youth plan and act on their plans for the youth's future? We used the action project method, an established qualitative approach, to answer these questions by observing the joint conversations of 14 parent and youth dyads. Our results provided evidence of an overarching higher level goal, or intentional framework, of crafting generational change and continuity within which participants' joint projects were embedded. Joint projects were organized into three groups: (a) negotiating educational and career futures, (b) promoting gender roles and marriage, and (c) shaping independence.

This study deals with an important sociological aspect of the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. It analyses urban poverty in the old, slum (shaʿbī) neighbourhoods in the centre of the city, such as those affiliated to the municipality of ‘al-Baṭḥāʾ’ where families in these areas have witnessed an increase in numbers along with a decrease in income and an increased rate of illiteracy. The residents of these neighbourhoods generally live in small houses – on average, measuring 10 m deep by 5 m wide (50 m2). Riyadh, like other Saudi cities, is characterized by a capacity to attract; however, it is at the forefront of Saudi cities with regard to the size of its population which reached approximately 4.4 million inhabitants in 1422 AH/2002 CE. The number of families is expected to grow by an average rate of 7% over the next ten years to reach 941,000. Similarly, the average rate of population growth reached 8.1% for the five-year period beginning in 1417 AH/1999 CE; and Saudis exhibit a high rate of annual growth reaching 9.6% and representing 69% of the total urban population. This urban growth, in the main, is attributable to internal migration that ranks as one of the chief factors in the size of the population. A demographic survey in 1999 clarified through the use of the variable of ‘place of birth’ that the region of Riyadh was ranked the foremost in the region for attracting Saudis. Similarly, it was obvious from results of the pilot study (Alnuaim 1999) of ‘social adjustment to immigrants from rural areas’ carried out in the neighbourhood of ‘al-ʿŪd’ and that of ‘Manfūḥah’ that there were Saudi families which had immigrated from the south-west region of the country, six years previously or less, to the impoverished inner city neighbourhoods of Riyadh, and that these families suffered a reduced or lack of income in conjunction with their large family size. Similarly, they also suffered from increased rates of illiteracy among men, women and children altogether. This study, which is a completion of some previous sociological and exploratory studies, attempts to answer the following question. To what extent is recent internal migration to the city of Riyadh and residency in its slum neighbourhoods connected to the phenomenon of urban poverty in them?