Young adults and their parents: Individuation to mutuality

Abstract

Measures of ego development and psychosocial identib are predictive of di&ences in the quality of relationships between young adults and their parents.Late in 1978, with the support of a three-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, we began a short-term longitudinal investigation of young adults and their relationships. At the basis of this research was the assumption that not only do individuals have the potential to progress through qualitative developmental changes across the life span but also the relationships in which they participate. In this chapter, we report our first-year findings on the relationships between family relationships and selected aspects of individual functioning.Why is a study of young adults included in a volume on adolescent development? As we will show, there are some important continuities in the issues in which adolescents and young adults are involved. For example, it seems clear that interrelationships among family interaction patterns, individuation, and other developmental processes continue beyond the adolescentThe study reported in this chapter was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH31719). Our thanks go to John Houlihan and Catherine Imbasciati for assistance with data analysis and project development and to Daniel Ozer for his comments on an earlier draft.

Parent Influences on Adolescent Peer Orientation and Substance Use: The Interface of Parenting Practices and Values

“…Recent studies have challenged views that adolescent detachment from parents is desirable (Mounts, 1996;Ryan & Lynch, 1989;Steinberg, 1990;White, Speisman, & Costos, 1983) or that parents' influence on their adolescents' peer relationships is weak or sharply curtailed (for an exception, see Brown & Huang, 1995). Both the socialization and individua tion-connectedness perspectives propose that parents influence their adolescents' peer relationships, albeit through different mechanisms.…”

Parent Influences on Adolescent Peer Orientation and Substance Use: The Interface of Parenting Practices and Values

“…Recent studies have challenged views that adolescent detachment from parents is desirable (Mounts, 1996;Ryan & Lynch, 1989;Steinberg, 1990;White, Speisman, & Costos, 1983) or that parents' infl uence on their adolescents' peer relationships is weak or sharply curtailed (for an exception, see Brown & Huang, 1995). Both the socialization and individuation-connectedness perspectives propose that parents infl uence their adolescents' peer relationships, albeit through different mechanisms.…”

Individuation in Family Relationships

“…Although individuation is just beginning to be investigated in systematic empirical terms, evidence from two other ongoing studies, White et al [1983] and Hauser and his colleagues [Hauser et al" 1980;Powers et al, 1983], may be adduced in support of the role of individuation in adolescent psychoso cial development. Although their conceptual izations of individuation differ slightly from our own [Cooper ct al., 1983;Grotevant and Cooper.…”

“…Although their conceptual izations of individuation differ slightly from our own [Cooper ct al., 1983;Grotevant and Cooper. 1985], a common theme of the three investigations is their focus on individual de velopment within a continuing parent-off spring relation in which individuality and connectedness arc negotiated [Youniss, 1983], White et al [ 1983] have proposed a model of individuation for understanding the devel opment of parent-child relationships as chil dren move from adolescence into young adulthood. According to the model, the first stage of parent-adolescent relationships stresses the autonomy of the adolescent as he or she seeks to establish separateness of the self from parents.…”

“…The parent-child relationship is seen as an enduring bond that continues throughout the life span [ Tcw/t/ss, 1983] but undergoes significant transforma tions in adolescence and young adulthood [Hill and Steinberg, 1976;White et al, 1983] as it is renegotiated from patterns of rela tively unilateral authority towards mutuality [Youniss, 1983]. Recent work consistent with this relational perspective suggests that the origins of individual differences in parentchild relationships may be traced from in fancy through middle childhood to adoles cence.…”