Intimacy and family: results from qualitative research among Bulgarian urban heterosexual youth.

This article examines the links between cultural meanings of intimacy and notions of family in the post-socialist setting of Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a country with highly gendered, heteronormative and conservative social norms about family and coupledom. Using a bricolage perspective, this research aimed to provide insight into the way these norms are integrated, reworked and possibly challenged in the narratives of intimacy of urban heterosexual young people. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 48 young people (16-25 years old) living in cities. The results show that their perceptions of intimacy reflect culturally important meanings and practices of family life, coupledom and selfhood. Three types of intimacy were identified - familistic, hybrid and individualistic. These models shaped participants' expectations and notions of love, relationships and intimacy and the way the actual experience in intimacy is viewed and interpreted.