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INDIVIDUATION IN RELATION TO PARENTS:
A CASE WITH SLOVENE EMERGING ADULT
STUDENTS
Maja ZUPANČIČ*, Luka KOMIDAR, Melita PUKLEK LEVPUŠČEK
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
ABSTRACT
This paper introduces some characteristics of emerging adulthood as having been
observed in Slovenia over the past decades. Special attention was devoted to
exploration of Slovene emerging adults’ individuation from their parents. Within
the framework of individuation theory and country-specific context, several aspects
of individuation in relation to mothers and fathers were investigated among 201
university students. Five reliable factors of individuation were revealed and a
relatively strong agreement between student reports in relation to mothers and
fathers occurred for the respective factors. Females and younger students
expressed a stronger need for closeness with parents than males and older
students. The students reported more need for closeness and engulfment anxiety in
relation to mothers than fathers. At the same time, more detachment, fear of love
withdrawal and ambivalence were perceived in relation to fathers than mothers.
The students residing in their parents’ home exhibited less feelings of detachment
in relation to mothers than their peers who lived out of their parents’ home.
Intimate relationship status was not associated with any individuation variable.
Students who see themselves more adult showed less fear of parental love
withdrawal. Although the study revealed some interesting findings about
individuation in the post-adolescent period, future research should consider other
developmentally relevant domains of individuation in emerging adulthood which
are not captured by existing instruments.
KEYWORDS: emerging adults, university students, individuation, achieved
criteria for adulthood
* Corresponding author:
E-mail: maja.zupancic@ff.uni-lj.si
Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An Interdisciplinary Journal
Copyright © 2012 ASCR Publishing House. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 1224-8398
Volume XVI, No. 2 (June), 265-292
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An Interdisciplinary Journal
16 (2012) 265-292
266
INTRODUCTION
Emerging adulthood refers to the age period from late teens through mid- or even
late twenties. It is characterized by a great deal of diversity and change in young
people’s residential arrangements, intimate relationships, educational and work
activities as well as by a prolonged identity exploration, subjective sense of
ambiguity in achieving full adult status, self-focusing, and perceptions of many
possibilities in their life-course (Arnett, 2000; Buhl & Lanz, 2007). Over the past
two decades, this period has been clearly observed across postindustrial societies,
which emphasize the role of education, professional training, individual choices and
personal independence in an individual’s life. Thus, young people’s entry into the
adult roles and responsibilities, such as leaving parents’ home, marriage, starting a
full-time career and parenthood, has been notably postponed (Arnett, 1998; 2000).
Emerging adulthood in Slovenia
The youth in Slovenia is, like in other Western type societies, given a prolonged
period of identity exploration and self-focusing, i.e., freedom from institutional
demands and obligations, competence and freedom to decide for oneself (Puklek
Levpušček & Zupančič, 2007; 2010; Zupančič, 2011). Consistently, when asked
about whether they think they have reached adulthood, a vast majority (86%) of
students, aged from 18 to 27 years, did not perceive themselves as adults or
adolescents but rather in-between an adolescent and an adult (Zupančič, 2011).
Postponement of entering into the adult world in terms of reaching traditional
markers of adulthood (e.g., moving out of parents’ home, getting married,
becoming a parent) has been, similarly to the overall trend of delay in postindustrial
societies (Kuhar, 2007; Scabini & Cigoli, 1997), noticed in Slovenia since the
1980s, i.e. before the socio-economical system changed. The trend of prolongation
of the transition to adulthood in Slovenia, its origins, descriptions, explanations and
consequences, including emerging adults’ family relationships, have been almost
exclusively provided by sociological research. Studies from this perspective are
described next to provide some relevant information about the living context of the
Slovene emerging adults.
Along with demographic changes – a decrease in fertility, an increase of
extramarital partnerships and childbirths, increasing age of the first marriage and
parenthood (Statistical Yearbook, 2006) –, a notable change in life experiences of
the Slovene youth was noticed in mid-eighties. It was characterized by increasing
dynamics, variability and complexity as well as a poor predictability of individuals’
developmental courses (Ule, Rener, Mencin Čeplak, & Tivadar, 2000). In contrast
to other ex-socialist countries (see Wallace, 2006), those changes occurred before
the transition to capitalism. The difference might be related to an essential
distinction between the Slovene (a republic of former Yugoslavia) self-management
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
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socialist system and the system in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. The
Yugoslav system allowed a considerable economic independence to individual
economic subjects and local communities, and the power of the Communist party
was restricted to several crucial points of the system (Kuhar, 2007). Accordingly,
there was an almost unlimited flow of information from the West as well as
educational, scientific and cultural exchange between Slovenia and Western
countries, and the borders were open to citizens.
The rate of the aforementioned demographic changes in Slovenia was
accelerated at the transition to market economy in the early 90s. The neoliberal
emphasis on the leading role of the market, an increasing role of individual’s own
initiatives, self-reliance, self-confidence and individual responsibility for one’s own
life have provided new opportunities and possibilities for emerging adults.
However, the change of the socio-economic system has also included new risks
(e.g., high unemployment rate, poor availability of apartments, lack of financial
support for young families by the state), which were unknown to the generation of
the emerging adults’ parents in the earlier years. Therefore, emerging adults were
assumed to become considerably dependent on financial support of their family
(Kuhar, 2007).
Along with the Slovaks, the Slovenes move out of their parents' home the
oldest in the EU, men in average at age 31.5 and women at age 29.8 (Eurostat Press
Office, 2009). Almost all young people (98%) up to the age 19 attend secondary
education programs, whereas 50% of those between 19 and 24 years are enrolled in
tertiary education (Statistical Office, 2009). Most of the emerging adult students
live in their parents’ home, which is in part due to a very short distance separating
home and educational institutions of choice. A vast majority of the remaining
students live semi-independently, i.e. reside in students' homes or share a flat with
roommates over the working days of the semester and they return home for
weekends and holidays. The national survey, Youth 2010, based on representative
data of Slovenes aged from 15 to 29 years, showed that also 60% of those employed
full-time live with their parents (Lavrič et al., 2010). Cohabitation, marriage, and
child birth were demonstrated to be important motives to move out of parents’
home among the Slovene emerging adults (Choroszewicz & Wolff, 2010). It
appears relatively consistent with the national statistics pertaining to the mean ages
of leaving parents’ home (Eurostat Press Office, 2009) and mean ages of the first
marriage (30.7 years for men and 28.3 for women; Statistical Office of the Republic
of Slovenia, 2010), suggesting that the Slovenes leave their parents’ home when
they get married or shortly after the event.
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An Interdisciplinary Journal
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Slovene emerging adults’ individuation in their families
The prevailing view in the literature contends that there is a small or even non-
existing generational gap between contemporary parents and their growing children
(e.g., Collins & Laursen, 2004). Similar findings have been demonstrated with the
Slovene youth (Puklek Levpušček & Zupančič, 2007; Ule et al., 2000). Most youth
get along well with their parents, consider parents as the most important people in
their lives, and ascribe them the role of emotional supporters when taking important
life decisions or feeling emotionally distressed. The Youth 2010 (Lavrič et al.,
2010) participants, for example, reported about favorable relationships with their
parents: 84.5% of them assessed the relationships with mother as good or very good
and 76.4% of them reported the same about their relationships with their father. The
present study extended these findings by exploring relationships with parents from a
perspective of emerging adults’ individuation process.
Individuation in relation to parents has been conceptualized as a process of
gaining autonomy (characterized by emotional separation, individuality, self-
regulation, self-determination, agency, independent decision-making) while
maintaining relatedness (mutual support, concern, reciprocal communication,
emotional availability) to parents (e.g., Youniss & Smolar, 1985). Although the
process plays an important role within a set of developmental tasks and adjustments
in adolescence (e.g., Kruse & Walper, 2008), recent studies also found it relevant
for emerging adulthood (Buhl, 2008; Masche, 2008). Links of autonomy variables
with different aspects of college students’ adjustment were demonstrated frequently
(e.g., Lamborn & Groh, 2009; Thoennissen, Guglhoer-Rudan, & Walper, 2008,
August). It seems that emerging adults’ autonomy in Western-type societies is
associated with closer adult child-parent relationships and indicates a successful
adjustment of young people (Arnett, 1998, 2007; Seiffge-Krenke, 2006). Our study
thus aimed to examine how different aspects of individuation, i.e. relatedness and
separation-individuation problems (e.g., anxieties), are associated with students’
age and gender. Furthermore, we wanted to analyze whether students perceive the
aspects of individuation in relation to mothers and fathers differently.
The emotional autonomy or separation is the experience of distance from
parents and involves the development of mature, realistic, and balanced perceptions
of parents, accompanied by the acceptance of responsibility for one’s own decisions
(Lamborn & Steinberg, 1993). According to separation-individuation theory (e.g.,
Blos, 1979) separation begins in early adolescence and resolves by the adult years.
While early phases of separation normatively include negative or emotionally
ambivalent experiences (confusion, anger, guilt, relational anxieties and
insecurities; e.g., Puklek Levpušček, 2006) and are associated with both negative
and positive outcomes, later phases that occur during the late teens or early twenties
of separation are described by integration and consolidation of self and
relationships. The associations between separation and positive outcomes have been
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
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suggested to become evident later in development as individuals continue to define
themselves independently of their parents (Beyers & Goossens, 2003; Lamborn &
Steinberg, 1993). Compared to adolescents, emerging adults also spend less time
with their parents and better satisfy their need for privacy because of parental
decreasing control over their lives on daily basis (Arnett, 2007). Concerning
connectedness, Buhl (2008) has, in contrast to individuation theory, demonstrated
that the aspects of emotional and cognitive connectedness to parents decreased over
emerging adult and young adult years; however, this was mainly ascribed to
biographical transitions, which is highly correlated with the participants’ age. Based
on the brief overview we expected that the level of relational needs (support
seeking) and individuation problems (i.e. anxiety and insecurity in relationships
with parents) would decrease with students’ age.
We further expected gender differences in individuation domains as child
gender has been demonstrated to contribute to the quality of parent-child
relationship: Daughters tend to remain more connected with both parents than sons
even in adulthood (e.g., Lye, 1996) and at the same time daughters feel less
powerful in parent-child relationships than sons (Buhl, 2008; Russell, Petit, & Mize,
1998). In a recent Slovene study with 25 year old students the females expressed
higher levels of connectedness and need for support in relation to their parents,
especially to mothers, than their male peers who, in turn, reported on more maternal
emotional intrusiveness than females (Marčec, 2012). Thus, it was proposed that
emerging adult females would exhibit a higher level of relatedness to both mothers
and fathers.
Youniss and Smolar (1985) reported on differences in adolescents’
individuation in relation to mother and father; a greater paternal authority and fewer
interactions of adolescents with fathers than mothers were suggested to contribute
to more cooperation and connectedness with mothers. Likewise, adult child-mother
relationships were found to have a higher level of socio-emotional affectivity than
adult child-father relationships (Lye, 1996). In previous Slovene studies, it has
further been shown that mothers are generally perceived to be more emotionally
close, confidential and engaged in interaction with their children than fathers
(Puklek Levpušček & Zupančič, 2007; Ule et al., 2000). Consistently, both Slovene
emerging adult daughters and sons were found to feel more connected to their
mothers than fathers, to seek more support in their relationships with mothers when
faced with difficult decisions or problems, and to exhibit more fear about
disappointing mothers than fathers (Marčec, 2012). However, some Slovene studies
with adolescent (Puklek Levpušček, 2006) and emerging adult samples (Marčec,
2012) also suggested that mothers were considered as more emotionally intrusive
than fathers by the young people. Therefore, it was hypothesized that relatedness
and concerns about parental emotional control would be experienced by the
emerging adults to a greater extent in relation to mothers than fathers.
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
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Individuation, biographical transitions, and perceived adult status
The Slovenes conceptualize adulthood in terms of personal independence, self-
reliance, psychosocial maturity, and capability of providing for one's own family
functionally, financially and psychologically (Puklek Levpušček & Zupančič, 2010;
Zupančič & Puklek Levpušček, 2011). Such beliefs are in line with conceptions of
emerging adults across many different postmodern societies (e.g., Arnett, 2001;
Mayseless & Scharf, 2003; Nelson, 2009; Sirsch, Dreher, Mayr, & Willinger,
2009). The question remains how the Slovene emerging adults manage
individuation from parents within the context of extended co-residence.
Consistently with the separation-individuation theory (Blos, 1979), loosening
family ties and taking an independent position is one of the key developmental tasks
already in adolescence. According to this theory, it may be presumed that co-
residing with parents over emerging adulthood restrains gaining of independence,
adult status and well-being (White, 2002), and indicates a lack of maturity, self-
reliant functioning, problems in developing emotional autonomy and renegotiation
of the relationship with parents into a nonhierarchical relationship between equals
(Beyers & Goossens, 2003; Beyers & Seiffge-Krenke, 2007).
In contrast to findings in some Western countries (e.g., Aquilino, 2006;
Clemens & Axelson, 1985; Kins & Beyers, 2010), no significant association of
Slovene emerging adults' living arrangement with the quality of their relationships
with parents was found (Lavrič et al., 2010; Puklek Levpušček, 2011). The
respondents residing with parents did not feel constrained in their strivings for
personal autonomy nor did they report about a lack of private living space
(especially those whose parents owned a family house). Accordingly, they reported
the same level of readiness to accept life responsibilities compared to their peers
who lived on their own. However, those who moved out of home felt more capable
of running a household and viewed themselves as financially more independent
than their peers living with parents (Puklek Levpušček & Zupančič, 2010). A recent
Slovene study with emerging adult students also suggested that the students residing
out of parents’ home feel more adult-like (i.e., they reported more criteria for
adulthood achieved) than their peers still co-residing with parents (Marčec, 2012).
Thus, it was expected that the students residing out of parents’ home would
experience a lower level of relational needs and less individuation problems than
those living with parents.
Other biographical transitions have also been identified to affect the
individuation process, both separation and connectedness (e.g., Buhl, 2008; Larose
& Boivin, 1998). Engagement in a stable intimate partnership appears to be one of
those important transitions in emerging adulthood. According to Furman and
Wehner (1994) intimate relationships change over adolescence from
companionships and friendships into attachment and replace parents as the most
important figures in emerging adults’ lives. Gray and Steinberg (1999) even
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considered intimate relationships as inherently linked to separation from parents.
Establishment of a long-term relationship with an intimate partner was further
found to lead to changes in connectedness with parents and to an increase in
individuality (Buhl, 2008; Larose & Boivin, 1998; Masche, 2008), for example,
through new experiences of living a (partly) separate life and accomplishment of
new emotional resources through emotional bonding to the intimate partner. Dating
emerging adults who were willing to marry their partner also had clearer future
plans about leaving parents home, marriage and parenthood (Lanz & Tagliabue,
2007) and they felt closer to adulthood than their single peers (Marčec, 2012).
Therefore, it was hypothesized that emerging adult students involved in a stable
intimate relationship would perceive less of a need for connectedness with parents
and less individuation problems than their peers not having an intimate partner.
Lastly, we explored whether the emotional experiences of individuation are
related to student self-perceived attainment of criteria for adulthood (ACA).
Growing individuality (separatedness) in young people is characterized by
increasing independence from parental authority, a change from unilateral authority
to cooperation, a shift of power within the parent-child relationship towards
symmetry and construction of self separate from parental influence (Youniss &
Smolar, 1985). All these are considered attributes of an individuated relationship
and are also captured by an important aspect of the criteria for adulthood as defined
by Arnett (2003), namely individualism or independence (e.g., establishing a
relationship with parents as an equal adult, not being deeply tied to parents
emotionally). Kins and Beyers (2010) indeed demonstrated that growing personal
independence from parents relates to an accelerated attainment of adulthood criteria
as proposed by Arnett (2003). Thus, it was proposed that the students’ needs for
closeness to parents and individuation problems (a lack of emotional autonomy,
insecurity and anxiety in relationship with parents) would show negative
associations with the ACA.
Hypotheses
In sum, the study aimed to test six hypotheses based on the overview of the
literature: (1) the level of relational needs and individuation problems (anxieties,
insecurity) would decrease with students’ age; (2) females would exhibit a higher
level of relatedness than males; (3) relatedness and feelings of parental emotional
control as a threat to personal autonomy would be experienced to a greater extent in
relation to mothers than fathers; (4) students who reside out of parents’ home and
(5) those in a stable intimate relationship were expected to experience lower levels
of needs for connectedness with parents and less individuation problems than their
peers living with parents or those not having an intimate partner; (6) students’ needs
for closeness to parents and individuation problems would show negative
associations with the ACA.
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
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METHOD
Participants
The participants were 201 emerging adult students at the University of Ljubljana,
aged from 19 to 27 years (M = 21.4 years, SD = 1.38). A majority of the
respondents took courses in Social Science or Humanities. The sample included
69.7% females who were on average 9.7 months younger than males, t(198) = 3.97,
p < .01. Further characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1. It shows that
at the time of the study, more students were in an intimate relationship than single
and two thirds were permanently living with their parents. Average age at which
one third of the participants moved out of their parents’ home was 19.3 years
(SD = 1.4) and there were no statistically significant differences with regard to this
variable by the students’ gender, ΔM = 0.52 years, t(60) = 1.18, p = .43.
Table 1.
Characteristics of the Sample by Intimate Relationship Status, Length of Intimate
Relationship and Residential Arrangement
% χ2 (df) p
Intimate relationship status 4.50 (1) < .05
Single 42.5
In a relationship 57.5
Length of intimate relationship 7.74 (2) < .05
Less than 1 year 31.6
Between 1 and 2 years 23.7
More than 2 years 44.7
Lives with parents 21.23 (1) < .001
No 33.7
Yes 66.3
However, 50 of the students who indicated living out of parents’ home
(N = 68) resided in a students’ home or shared flat with a room-mate. In Slovenia, it
indicates a temporary arrangement due to the study held out of the students’ home
town, which is accompanied by returning home over the weekends and holidays.
The remaining out of family home students reported to share a flat with an intimate
partner (N = 11), reside in a non-shared flat (N = 4) or indicated other living
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arrangements (N = 3) but it is unfortunately not clear whether or not those
arrangements are temporary (due to course attendance out of the home town).
Procedure
The three self-report questionnaires were administered in Slovene and thus, the
MIT-EA and the ACA were translated from German and English, respectively
within a broader international project on emerging adulthood in three countries
(Emerging Adulthood and Individuation: A Comparison between Austria, Slovenia
and the USA coordinated by Wolfgang Friedlmeier at the Grand Valley State
University, MI, USA).
The students were approached in their classes by research assistants. The
potential participants were given information about the purpose of the study on
emerging adulthood, their rights, confidentiality of the research (e.g., anonymous)
and the procedure of participation. Almost all agreed to take part in the study and a
few of those who refused left the class. The remaining students were then asked to
provide demographic data first, and then to fill out the MIT-EA and the ACA. The
rank-order of the two instruments given was random. The administration of the
instruments took about 30 minutes.
Instruments
Aspects of individuation in emerging adulthood were assessed using the MIT for
Emerging Adults (MIT-EA, Walper, 2005), a version of the Munich Individuation
Test for Adolescents (MITA; Walper, 1998) with a few items slightly reworded to
suit emerging adults better. The 26 items of the self-report instrument were
suggested to be organized into six scales of separation-individuation from mother
and father separately (Walper, 1997, 2005):
Successful Individuation (four items): An individual's personal autonomy while
maintaining relatedness to a parent;
Denial of Attachment Needs (four items): An individual's negation of needs for
parents’ closeness and support;
Support Seeking (three items): An individual's wish for physical and emotional
closeness to a parent, and parental support;
Ambivalence (five items): An individual's striving for closeness with a parent
without positive expectations to fulfill this need;
Fear of Love Withdrawal (four items): A lack of an individual's security about
parental affection or fear that his/her behavior or failure would lead to a
loss of parental love, and
Engulfment Anxiety (six items): An individual's feeling about parental emotional
control as a threat to autonomy and experiencing the parent as emotionally
intrusive.
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
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The items are rated along 4-point Likert-type rating scale (1 = not true,
2 = somehow true, 3 = rather true, 4 = completely true). Since the construct validity
(the factorial structure) and other important metric characteristics of the MIT-EA
have not been examined yet (neither in the original version nor in the Slovene
translation), we first tested the proposed six-factor model of the MIT-EA in our
sample. The findings of confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory analyses of
dimensionality, along with the estimates of internal reliability of the individuation
measures are thus presented in the Results section. In order to make the scale-scores
comparable across all factors, the average score per scale-item was calculated.
To assess the attainment of criteria for adulthood, items were selected from
the Conception of the Transition to Adulthood (CTA; Arnett, 1998, 2003). The CTA
criteria (items) were drawn from literature in anthropology, sociology, and
psychology (see Arnett, 1998, 2000, 2001) and they were conceptually organized
into seven categories by the author (Arnett, 2001, 2003). Instead of asking the
students whether they think each of the criteria has to be attained by a person to be
considered an adult, the participants were asked whether they had attained each of
the criteria themselves. Twenty-seven of the CTA items were presented that pertain
to the following five categories: Independence (six items; e.g., ‘Accept
responsibility for the consequences of own actions’), Interdependence (three items;
e.g., ‘Committed to a long-term love relationship’), Family Capacities (four items;
e.g., ‘Capable of caring for children’), Norm Compliance (eight items; e.g., ‘Avoid
drunk driving’), and Role Transitions (six items; e.g., ‘Married’). The CTA items in
the categories Biological Transitions and Legal Transitions were excluded from the
adjusted questionnaire in this study because they appear irrelevant for exploring
criteria attainment in the age range of our respondents. The students indicated
personal beliefs on their attainment of criteria for adulthood (ACA) in a Yes/No
response format. The total score (the percentage of “yes” answers to all of the
items) was computed as an overall indicator of the degree of reaching criteria for
adulthood. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicated that the overall ACA scores are
distributed normally (Z = .96, p > .05) and the internal coherence of the score was
satisfactory (α = .75).
RESULTS
The structure of MIT-EA in the Slovene sample
To test the construct validity of the MIT-EA, a separate confirmatory factor
analyses was computed for data collected in relation to mothers and fathers. The
six-factor model as proposed by Walper (1997, 2005) did not have an acceptable fit
to the data (in relation to mother: χ2(284) = 604.5, p = .000, NFI = 0.74;
RMSEA = 0.08; in relation to father: χ2(284) = 582.5, p = .000, NFI = 0.72,
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RMSEA = 0.07). In the next step, two separate exploratory analyses of
dimensionality (unweighted least squares with oblimin rotation) were performed in
order to test whether some other structure better describes the Slovene data on
individuation in relation to mother and father. After inspecting several solutions
using different criteria for determining the number of factors and excluding items
with low and/or ambiguous factor loadings, the Slovene emerging adult data
(ratings of individuation in relation to mother and in relation to father alike) yielded
an explicable five-factor solution (see Table 2) and 20 out of 26 items were
retained. The items discarded in both datasets were constituents of the following
original MIT-EA scales: Successful Individuation (one item), Fear of Love
Withdrawal (one item), Engulfment Anxiety (two items), and Ambivalence (two
items).
The first factor was labeled Detachment. It represents a combination of
negative loadings of items belonging to the original Successful Individuation scale
as defined by Walper (2005) and positive loadings of the Denial of Attachment
Needs scale-items. The second factor, Fear of Love Withdrawal, contains the
(reduced number of) items of the same original scale. The third factor, Engulfment
Anxiety, also retains the (reduced) items of the respective original scale. The fourth
factor includes the items from the Support Seeking scale but it refers to (physical)
closeness and was rather labeled as the Need for Closeness. The label Ambivalence
was retained for the fifth factor because it loaded for the same (reduced) items as
proposed in the respective original scale. In spite of relatively small number of
items per scale (except for the first one that consists of seven items), they have
satisfactory internal reliability as displayed in Table 2. In addition, the factor
loadings are quite high (on average from .50 to .70; see Table 2). All subsequent
analyses were conducted with the five factors derived by the exploratory factor
analyses of the Slovene data.
The correlations among the factors (Table 3) are consistent with the
obtained scales' contents and are on average relatively low, except for a moderate
association between the first and the fourth factor: The more the students feel
detached to their mother/father the less need for closeness they perceive, and vice
versa. Detachment also seems to be connected with negative aspects of
individuation, i.e. engulfment anxiety (in relation to mothers only) and
ambivalence, whereas the need for closeness shows a weak positive association
with fear of parental love withdrawal, and a small-sized negative association with
engulfment anxiety in relation to mothers. Finally, ambivalence is positively but
weakly associated with fear of parental love withdrawal and engulfment anxiety in
relation to mothers.
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Table 2.
Factor Pattern Matrix for MIT-EA items and Cronbach's α Coefficients for the Five
Extracted Factors (Mothers and Fathers Separately)
Factor
1 2 3 4 5
MF MFMFMF M F
Cronbach's α .84 .86 .69 .81 .77 .64 .83 .79 .69 .64
I am mostly not keen on being together with
my mother/father .71 .73 .06 .11 .12 .04 –.10 –.08 .00 –.04
I do not care what she/he thinks about me .67 .68 –.10 –.13 .02 .11 –.01 –.02 .08 –.01
Even if I sometimes argue with my
mother/father we like each other –.65 –.75 .04 –.04 .04 .03 –.07 –.08 .12 –.03
I get along pretty well without her/his
affection .62 .78 –.03 –.11 .12 .00 –.04 .07 .01 .02
She/he will always be important to me even
if I pursue my own interests –.50 –.56 .01 .11 .07 .08 .20 .17 .17 –.14
We understand each other well although we
sometimes have different opinions –.49 –.62 –.07 –.20 –.15 .04 .14 .14 .02 .00
Most of the time I get along best when I am
alone (without mother/father) .45 .44 .00 –.16 .18 .14 –.10 –.11 .06 .07
If I disappoint my mother/father I am afraid
that he won't love me as much anymore –.02 .03 .84 .83 .00 –.09 –.02 –.01 .08 .01
When I make mistakes, I ask myself
whether my mother/father still likes me .07 .00 .63 .65 –.17 .02 .08 .03 –.04 .12
I am often afraid of doing something wrong
and to disappoint her/him –.13 –.05 .49 .73 .19 .10 .03 –.01 –.09 –.01
I am very much bothered when my
mother/father continuously wants to know
everything about me .03 .02 .05 –.06 .73 .84 –.11 .04 .00 .04
I would prefer that she/he wouldn't be
attached to me so much .06 –.02 –.10 –.01 .64 .43 .04 –.08 .01 .01
It annoys me when my mother/father asks
me about my own business .18 .20 .03 .05 .63 .58 –.16 –.16 –.08 .10
I often wish that my mother/father is less
thoughtful and worried about me .02 –.05 .02 .07 .55 .42 .06 .19 –.05 –.06
I would like most to travel often with
her/him .11 .10 .13 –.03 .02 .01 .83 .91 .13 –.01
I would like to experience many things
together with my mother/father –.27 –.27 –.05 .00 –.07 –.05 .70 .64 –.09 –.02
I would like to live in the same town as my
mother/father so we could spend a lot of
time together –.11 –.15 .00 .10 .01 .01 .69 .54 –.07 .16
I am someti mes not sure whether my
mother/father is pleased with I show my
affection to him .09 .10 –.09 .09 –.02 .04 –.07 .05 .89 .58
Sometimes I have the feeling that I like my
mother/father more than he likes me .39 .17 .09 .07 –.06 –.04 .12 .05 .49 .44
I would like to do more with my
mother/father but I am sometimes afraid of
bothering her/him –.10 –.12 .12 –.02 .17 .02 –.02 –.02 .45 .66
Notes: M: in relation to mother, F: in relation to father.
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Table 3.
Factor Correlation Matrices for Solutions in Relation to Mother and in Relation to Father
In relation to mother In relation to father
Factor 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
2 –0.13 –0.12
3 0.32 0.13 0.15 0.08
4 –0.50 0.28 –0.29 –0.49 0.20 0.00
5 0.30 0.30 0.22 –0.04 0.36 0.29 0.14 0.01
Notes: 1 = Detachment, 2 = Fear of Love Withdrawal, 3 = Engulfment Anxiety, 4 = Need for
Closeness, 5 = Ambivalence.
Table 4.
Descriptive Statistics of the MIT-EA Scales, Correlations Between the Corresponding Scales
in Relation to Mother and Father, and the Results of Paired Samples t-tests for Differences
Between Scale-Scores in Relation to Mother and Father
MIT-EA Scales N M SD r (M–F) t d
Detachment (M) 196 1.53 0.52 .45** 3.43** 0.26
Detachment (F) 190 1.68 0.61
Fear of Love Withdrawal (M) 197 1.54 0.57 .68** 2.50* 0.16
Fear of Love Withdrawal (F) 190 1.64 0.69
Engulfment Anxiety (M) 198 2.20 0.71 .48** 8.12** 0.60
Engulfment Anxiety (F) 192 1.81 0.58
Need for Closeness (M) 199 2.23 0.73 .71** 2.25* 0.11
Need for Closeness (F) 190 2.15 0.73
Ambivalence (M) 198 1.22 0.43 .54** 3.21** 0.20
Ambivalence (F) 191 1.31 0.48
Notes: (M) denotes a scale-score in relation to mother and (F) in relation to father.
* p < .05; ** p < .01.
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In addition to the analyses of dimensionality and internal reliability, the
rank-order consistency across the student ratings of the five aspects of individuation
in relation to mother and father was estimated by means of Pearson’s correlation
coefficients (presented in Table 4, column r(M–F)). All of the respective MIT-EA
scale-scores were at least moderately (and significantly) correlated. The highest
associations of the scale-scores in relation to mother and father were obtained for
the need for closeness and fear of love withdrawal, meaning that the students who
seek more/less physical closeness in relation to their mothers and experience
more/less fear of losing her affection are strongly likely to report so in relation to
their fathers as well.
Descriptive statistics of the MIT-EA scale-scores concerning mother and
father are presented in Table 4. An inspection of the mean scores suggests that the
student ratings are generally low; however, the mothers are experienced somewhat
psychologically intrusive, threatening their emerging adult children’s sense of
autonomy. The need for closeness with parents, representing an adaptive aspect of
behavior (at least in adolescence), is rated relatively higher than other aspects of
individuation but in terms of absolute values, the need for closeness is estimated in
between “somewhat true” and “rather true” by the students.
Relations of students’ MIT-EA scores with chronological age and gender
Associations of the five MIT-EA scale-scores with students’ chronological age
(defined in months) were determined by means of Pearson’s correlation coefficients
to test whether the level of relational needs and individuation problems (anxieties,
insecurity) decreases over age (the first hypothesis). No significant links, except for
modest negative associations of the Need for Closeness scale-scores with age, were
revealed. The latter provides support for the part of the hypothesis concerning
relational needs: The older the students the less closeness they were seeking in
relation to both their mothers (r = –.24, p < 0.01) and fathers (r = –.25, p < 0.01).
The second hypothesis proposed that female students would exhibit a
higher level of relatedness than their male peers. Using t-tests for independent
samples, the statistical significance of gender differences in self-reported students’
views on the five aspects of individuation in relation to mothers and fathers was
tested. The magnitude of the differences was also determined. Cohen (1988)
suggested that, for the d statistics, values ≥ .20 and < .50 indicate a small effect size,
and values between .50 - .79 and > .80 indicate a moderate and high effect size,
respectively. The summary of the results is presented in Figure 1. Consistent to the
hypothesis, the male students reported on a weaker need for closeness in relation to
both parents (ΔMmother = 0.44, t(197) = 4.10, p < .01, d = 0.64; ΔMfather = 0.24,
t(188) = 2.11, p = .04, d = 0.34), they felt more detached from their mothers
(ΔM = 0.21, t(194) = 2.69, p = .01, d = 0.41) and experienced more engulfment
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
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anxiety in relation to mothers (ΔM = 0.27, t(196) = 2.49, p = .01, d = 0.38) than
their female student peers. Except for the gender difference in needs for closeness
with mothers which showed a medium effect size, the remaining gender differences
were small.
Figure 1.
Gender Differences in MIT-EA Scale-Scores. Asterisk Above the Scale Label Denotes a
Statistically Significant Difference in Scores of Female and Male Participants.
Students’ individuation scores in relation to mothers and fathers: Mean-level
differences
In order to test the third hypothesis (emerging adults’ level of relational needs and
perceptions of parental emotional over-control would be experienced to a greater
extent in relation to mothers than fathers), mean-level differences of students’
individuation scale-scores were compared in relation to mother and father, using
paired samples t-tests with regard to each of the five MIT-EA scales. The summary
results are displayed in Table 4.
In support to the hypothesis, the results based on student reports
demonstrate significantly higher levels of the need for closeness and engulfment
anxiety in relation to mothers than fathers. Significantly lower levels of detachment,
ambivalence, and fear of love withdrawal in relation to mother than father was
obtained in addition. Except for the Engulfment Anxiety scale-scores, which shows
a moderate effect size, the effect sizes for the mean differences in the remaining
scale-scores are small.
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
Detachm ent*
Fear of Love
Withdraw al
Engulfm ent
Anxiety*
Need for
Closeness*
Ambiv alence
M
In re latio n to moth er
Female
Male
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
Detachm ent
Fear of Love
Withdraw al
Engulfm ent
Anxiety
Need for
Closeness*
Ambiv alence
M
In re lation to fath er
Female
Male
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Relations of students’ MIT-EA scores with their residential arrangement and
intimate relationship status
With regard to the students’ residential arrangement, those residing out of parents’
home were expected to experience a lower level of needs for connectedness with
parents and less individuation problems than those living with parents. In partial
support to the fourth hypothesis, the results of t-tests for independent samples
revealed that the students who live out of parents’ home tended to perceive (at a
marginal level of significance) less of a need for closeness in relation to their
mother (ΔM = 0.20, t(195) = 1.83, p = .07, d = 0.28) and more detachment in
relation to her (ΔMmother = 0.22, t(192) = 2.48, p = .02, d = 0.44), whereas the
differences in the same direction in relation to father were only marginally
significant (ΔMfather = 0.19, t(186) = 1.87, p = .06, d = 0.31). In contrast, the
students not residing in parents’ home tended to experience slightly more
engulfment anxiety in relation to mothers (ΔM = 0.20, t(194) = 1.82, p = .07,
d = 0.28) than their peers permanently residing in parents’ home (see Figure 2);
however, the mean difference was only marginally significant. It should be noted
that all these effects were quite small. In addition, the students’ age at leaving
parents’ home was not related significantly to any of the participants’ individuation
scores.
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
Detac hment *
Fear of Love
Withdrawal
Engulfment
Anxiety #
Need for
Closeness #
Ambivalenc e
M
In relati on to mo ther
Mov ed out
Still lives w ith fam ily
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
Detac hment *
Fear of Love
Withdrawal
Engulfment
Anxiety
Need f or
Closeness
Ambiv alence
M
In r elati on to fa ther
Moved out
Still lives with f amily
Figure 2.
Differences in MIT-EA Scale-Scores by Residential Arrangement. Asterisks and Number
Signs (#) Above the Scale Labels Denote Statistically Significant Differences in Scores of
Students Residing in/out of Parents’ Home (* p < .05, # p < .10).
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The prediction that students in a stable intimate relationship would
experience a lower level of needs for closeness with parents and less individuation
problems than their single peers (hypothesis 5) was not confirmed. The results of t-
tests for independent samples suggested no statistically significant differences in
MIT-EA scale-scores (in relation to father or mother) regarding the students’
intimate relationship status. Similarly, no significant correlations (in terms of
Pearson’s rs) of the MIT-EA scale-scores with length of the intimate relationship
were revealed, with an exception of the need for closeness with fathers. The
students having a longer intimate relationship reported about somewhat stronger
need for closeness in relation to father as compared to their peers with a shorter
lasting intimate relationships (r = .20, p < .05).
The links of individuation scores with the perceptions of criteria for adulthood
attained
Finally, we proposed that the students’ need for closeness to parents and
individuation problems would negatively associate with their perceived attainment
of criteria for adulthood (the ACA score) (hypothesis 6). The relationships of the
five MIT-EA scale-scores with the ACA were assessed by means of Pearson’s
correlation coefficients. Significant but modest correlations were obtained between
the ACA and one of the MIT-EA scale-scores. The students who report about
having attained more criteria for adulthood seem to experience somewhat less fear
of parental love withdrawal both in relation to mothers (r = –0.19, p < .05) and
fathers (r = –0.18, p < .05) than those indicating less criteria achieved and vice
versa, students perceiving less fear of parental love withdrawal consider themselves
of having attained more criteria than those experiencing more fear.
DISCUSSION
The present study explored several aspects of individuation in relation to mothers
and fathers among Slovene emerging adult students as well as associations of
individuation indicators with demographic characteristics of the participants and
their self-perceived attainment of criteria for adulthood (ACA). A self-report
questionnaire, The Munich Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (MIT-EA;
Walper, 2005), was employed. It represents a slightly modified version of the
instrument which was originally constructed for adolescents (Walper, 1998).
Therefore, we tested the six-factor structure derived by the author with German
adolescent data (Walper, 1997). The model did not fit the Slovene emerging adult
data but further analyses suggested an acceptable five-factor solution with a reduced
set of the MIT-EA items (six of the original items were omitted due to inadequacy).
As the findings are based on the obtained five-factor structure of individuation,
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which appeared to be identical in relation to mother and father, the factors are
described first.
Factors of individuation in MIT-EA
Three of the factors in the sample of Slovene emerging adult students clearly
reflected insecurities in relation to parents (see also Kruse & Walper, 2008) and
replicated the factors derived with adolescent data (Walper, 1997, 1998), i.e. the
Fear of Love Withdrawal, Engulfment Anxiety, and Ambivalence. Except for six
inadequate items discarded in the study, the remaining ones loaded for the same
three factors found in German adolescents by Walper. Another factor that was
replicated in our study comprises an aspect of child-parent relatedness and was
labeled Need for Closeness, though it was initially referred to as Support Seeking
(Walper, 1998) and later as Nurturance Seeking (Kruse & Walper, 2008). We opted
for the re-labeling because the items predominantly carry the meaning of an
individual’s wish for physical proximity with a parent, and partly, a desire for
emotional intimacy (sharing experience), which do not necessarily imply seeking
for a parent’s supplying support or an emerging adult’s desires for parental comfort,
recognition, approval, encouragement etc. The factor of Successful Individuation
(Walper, 1997, 1998, 2005), presumably reflecting a balance of individuals’
autonomy and relatedness to parents, failed to replicate in the study. Instead, the
items originally ascribed to the Successful Individuation scale loaded negatively
(along with the items referring to denial of attachment needs) for the newly derived
factor of detachment. It describes an emotional separation from parents (an absence
of attachment, un-involvement in the relationship), self-sufficiency (a perceived
ability to satisfy own needs without parents, having a strong confidence in one’s
own resources), avoidance of contacts with parents, emotional autonomy with no
desire for connectedness to parents.
The five scales of individuation suggested by the MIT-EA dimensionality
analyses of data from our sample appear internally coherent and stable across
emerging adults' ratings of individuation in relation to mothers and fathers. Similar
levels of correspondence were found in adolescents’ reports about their
relationships with mothers and fathers (Laursen, Wilder, Noack, & Williams, 2000;
Puklek Levpušček, 2006), suggesting that individuals' perceptions of mother-child
and father-child relations reflect a complex family system comprised of discrete yet
interconnected dyads (Minuchin, 1985).
Aspects of individuation in Slovene emerging adult students
An overview of the five IT-EA mean scale-scores suggests that several problematic
aspects of individuation in relation to each of the parents (ambivalence, detachment,
and fear of love withdrawal) are rated extremely low (in-between “not true” and
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“somewhat true”) by the students. Compared to those problem-related aspects of
individuation, the students' average ratings of engulfment anxiety were somewhat
higher (especially in relation to mother), whereas the items referring to the students’
desire for closeness with their parents (particularly in relation to mother) were rated
the highest (in between “somewhat true” and “rather true”). In sum, the results
indicate that most of the Slovene emerging adult students do not experience a
notable level of separation anxiety nor they perceive a strong parental emotional
control or feelings of detachment from parents. On average, they feel reasonably
connected with both parents. The pattern of the mean scale-scores obtained in the
sample closely resembles the secure type of individuation described in German
mid-adolescents (low in denial of attachment, ambivalence, and fear of love
withdrawal, somewhat higher in engulfment anxiety, and highest in nurturance
seeking) by Kruse and Walper (2008). It should be noted that the students scored
lower in the need for closeness (the mean scale-scores in the two studies are
comparable as average item-scores per scale are provided) and that the German
authors did not include the Successful Individuation scale in their analysis.
Although individuation issues are still relevant for the period of emerging
adulthood (Buhl, 2008; Masche, 2008), an emerging adult child's support seeking
and focusing on relational issues with parents are expected to gradually decrease
with age. The results partially supported the first hypothesis, i.e. that a need for
(physical) closeness and individuation problems would decrease with increasing age
of the university students. While the need for closeness with parents, which was on
average only moderate, was negatively but modestly related to age, individuation
problems were not. The result might be due to a fairly low variability of the
emerging adult students’ scale-scores on the respective scales of individuation
problems and a low variability in the participants’ age, which could have both
underestimated the associations.
The findings support the second hypothesis about gender differences in
relational needs towards parents. Consonant to previous Slovene findings with
adolescents (e.g., Puklek Levpušček, 2006; Ule et al., 2000) and emerging adults
(Marčec, 2012), the Slovene female students exhibited a stronger need for closeness
with their parents than male students. The gender difference in desire for closeness
with mothers is of a special note as it showed, relatively speaking, the strongest
effect size of all obtained in the study. Compared to the Slovene emerging adult
sons, the Slovene emerging adult daughters seem to express a wish for physical
proximity and sharing experiences with their parents to a greater extent, exhibit less
fear of their mother’s emotional control (engulfment anxiety) and feel less detached
from mothers. Similar findings on gender differences in adolescents’ relationships
with mothers and fathers were revealed previously: Girls reported about more
emotional closeness with their mother than adolescent boys (Geuzaine, Debry, &
Liesens, 2000; Paterson, Field, & Pryor, 1994) and the capability of reaching
independence while maintaining emotional proximity with the mother has been
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suggested to present the main challenge in female individuation (Geuzaine et al.,
2000). Given the low level of engulfment anxiety even in mother-son relationships
and a stronger need for closeness with fathers in emerging adult females as
compared to males, the results may reflect traditional gender roles at the side of
parental behavior as well as at the side of relational needs of daughters and sons.
Further, the results support the third hypothesis about a relatively stronger
relatedness of students to their mothers than fathers. The mother, as demonstrated
by international (e.g., Lye, 1996) as well as by several Slovene studies with
adolescents (e.g., Puklek Levpušček & Zupančič, 2007; Ule et al., 2000) and
emerging adults (Marčec, 2012), has an important role of emotional provider to
young people who seek support and advice when taking important life decisions or
feeling distressed, and she also represents a person with whom emerging adults
wish to merely share experience. A more intense mother's than father's emotional
involvement with their children is probably one of the reasons why emerging adult
students in the present study reported on a stronger need for closeness with the
mother but also felt more emotionally controlled by her. Consistent to those
differences, the students expressed a lower level of relational needs (somewhat
higher scores in detachment) and more relational insecurity (slightly higher scores
in ambivalence and fear of love withdrawal) in relation to their fathers than
mothers. On the one hand, direct assessments of a subjective sense of students’
mixed feelings toward their parents obtained by the Ambivalence MIT-EA scale
suggest somewhat more contradictory feelings towards fathers than mothers. On the
other hand, slightly stronger ambivalent feelings towards mothers as compared to
fathers may be also claimed through indirectly obtained MIT-EA measures as both
students’ needs for closeness and feelings of emotional over-control were reported
to be stronger in relation to mother than father. In any case, ambivalence more
often arises in close family relationships than in more distal kin or close nonfamily
relationships, and may thus reflect closeness in a relationship characterized by at
least some degree of mixed feelings, tensions, and conflicts (Fingerman, Hay, &
Birditt, 2004).
Relations of individuation with biographical transitions and attainment of criteria
for adulthood
With regard to the fourth hypothesis, the emerging adult students residing out of
parents’ home reported, on average, a somewhat weaker need for closeness with
mothers (but not fathers) than their peers living in the parents’ home. Contrary to
the expectations, the former also tended to experience a somewhat higher level of
fear of maternal emotional control (engulfment anxiety) and more detachment in
relation to both parents. It should be kept in mind at this point that those differences
were only marginally significant, except for the small-sized differences in
detachment in relation to mothers, and that the overall detachment scores were very
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low. Also, detachment mainly denoted an individual’s expression of self-sufficiency
and emphasizing emotional separation from parents. Perhaps the emerging adult
students with somewhat stronger separation strivings and resistance to parental
emotional control have an important motive to (at least temporarily) move out of
parents home, and they also more frequently adjust their living arrangements
accordingly. Anyhow, the results mainly suggest that the students who co-reside
with parents experience considerably low levels of parental emotional intrusiveness
and do not exhibit a strong need to express their self-sufficiency. Obviously they
feel even slightly closer to their parents and may get along with them better than the
students living (at least partially) a separate life. This is consonant with recent
findings in Slovenia contending that the emerging adults and their mothers consider
socio-economic drawbacks as far the most important reasons for not leaving their
family home, whereas a lack of personal autonomy is not regarded as the motive for
a prolonged co-residing with parents (Durjava, 2009). Young people living with
their parents do not feel constrained with regard to personal autonomy and believe
that they are assured a sufficient amount of privacy in their parents’ home (Lavrič et
al., 2010). The results of the present study are consistent with those claims as well
as with suggestions of some scholars that emerging adults having good relationships
with parents are more likely to experience a sense of well-being in the parents’
home and may not be attracted to move out (e.g., Lanz & Tagliabue, 2007).
The fifth hypothesis contending that the students involved in an intimate
relationship would report to experience a lower level of a need for connectedness to
parents and less individuation problems was rejected. No relation of the aspects of
individuation with students’ intimate status neither its length was found significant.
It appears that the student reported involvement in a stable partnership does not
imply a lower amount of the perceived need for closeness with parents as also noted
by Lanz and Tagliabue (2007) among Italian emerging adults. It should further be
emphasized that our sample, in general, exhibited a reasonable level of relational
needs and low levels of individuation problems in relation to parents. Emotional
bonding to an intimate partner may thus play no significant role in fairly well
individuated parent-student relationships as also suggested by a Slovene study
(Marčec, 2012), which compared parent-child relationships of students in an
intimate relationship and having own children to a sample of students (with and
without a partner) without children; no differences between the samples were found
in any parent-child relationship variables (connectedness, need for parental support,
fear of disappointing a parent, perceived parental intrusiveness, and agency).
An increase in the amount of overall criteria for adulthood reported to be
attained (ACA) by the emerging adult students was modestly related to a decrease
in the level of their separation anxiety (fear of love withdrawal) in relation to both
mothers and fathers. As emerging adults continue to gain more individuality, the
parent-child relationships renegotiate into more symmetrical ones (Tanner, 2006).
The relational restructuring is likely to diminish emotional dependence from parents
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that also reflects in decreasing separation anxiety. In other words, the emerging
adults who feel more adult like tend to fear less that their behavior or life failures
would lead to a loss of parental love than those who believe to be less close to
adulthood in terms of adult criteria attainment. The association may also run in the
opposite direction: The students in more secure relationships with parents may tend
to achieve more criteria for adulthood, possibly because they feel more prepared to
do so in the family context of emotional security than those in less secure
relationships. Although this finding appears in line with our last hypothesis, our
results did not provide a convincing support to the hypothesis as all of the
remaining individuation indicators were not significantly related to the ACA.
Limitations and future outlook
The results of the present study must be interpreted within the context of several
limitations. First, we focused on university students who represent a relatively
homogeneous group of emerging adults and the respondents were sampled from one
university only. On the one hand, students represent a majority of the Slovene
emerging adults and our participants were sampled from the largest university in the
country (there are only two others). On the other hand, including non-students in a
sample would give a less restrictive view of Slovene emerging adults’ individuation
in relation to parents. Second, socially desirable responding, due to susceptibility to
self-defensiveness and self-presentational strategies, may undermine the validity of
students' self-reports in spite of their advantage to capture a unique perspective of
own private experience. Third, relying on a one-informant method of data collection
might have even overestimated the relations between the MIT-EA and ACA scores
which were low anyway. Fourth, the data were collected at one point measurement
occasion. Using longitudinal designs would provide a more direct insight into the
development of individuation over emerging adulthood.
Our findings further imply that several items of the MIT-EA should be
reconsidered. A supplement of an additional scale to measure adaptive aspects of
individuation beyond adolescence is warranted. To corroborate this claim,
evaluation of the six-factor model of the MIT-EA (Walper, 2005) with samples of
Austrian and the US emerging adult students also suggested a rejection of the
model. Likewise, exploratory analyses of the dimensionality of data failed to
replicate the Successful Individuation factor in both samples (Komidar, Zupančič,
& Puklek Levpušček, 2009). Focusing of attention on creation of items that would
capture the construct of balanced autonomy and relatedness in relation to parents
over emerging adulthood is thus needed. According to contemporary theories of
individuation in emerging adulthood (see Lamborn & Groh, 2009), developmentally
relevant items should put an emphasis on developmental accomplishments of the
period such as psychosocial maturity, functional independence, self-reliance, and
responsibility-taking. Nevertheless, the 20-item scale used in the present study may
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prove beneficial for use with emerging adults experiencing problems in their
relationships with parents. The five scales assessing mostly problematic aspects of
individuation certainly have to be tested against external criteria and further
research with larger samples of emerging adults is needed in order to establish the
utility of the proposed five MIT-EA scales.
In sum, we investigated several aspects of individuation in a quite
representative sample of Slovene university students, using the Munich
Individuation Test adjusted for emerging adults (Walper, 2005). Five reliable
factors of individuation were derived: Detachment, Fear of Love Withdrawal,
Engulfment Anxiety, Need for Closeness, and Ambivalence. The structure of the
student ratings of individuation in relation to mothers and fathers was strongly
similar, with the respective scale-scores in relation to mothers and fathers at least
moderately correlated, suggesting that the family relationships comprise a discrete
yet interconnected parent-child dyads. The obtained pattern of individuation scores
in relation to each parent separately was characterized by a moderate level of
students’ need for parental closeness and low levels of individuation problems,
which in general signals a successful individuation of Slovene emerging adult
students. A stable intimate relationship was not related to any aspect of
individuation but several relatively weak links with the students’ age, gender, and
residential status as well as with parents’ gender were demonstrated. As expected
based on the literature overview, daughters and students living with parents appear
somewhat more connected to their parents, especially to the mothers, than sons and
those residing out of the family home. This study also indicated that the experiences
of lower separation anxiety in parent-child relationships are associated with
students’ feelings of being closer to adulthood. However, future research should
include other developmentally relevant domains of individuation in emerging
adulthood which were not captured by the instrument employed (e.g., attitudinal
and cognitive aspects, a sense of agency).
M. Zupančič, L. Komidar, M. Puklek Levpušček
Cognition, Brain, Behavior. An Interdisciplinary Journal
16 (2012) 265-292
288
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