The separation and unification in leaving home parent-child relationship: the effect of separation-individuation and attachment quality on parent-child relationship satisfaction
Date Issued
2005
Date
2005
Author(s)
Huang, Yu-Chiao
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Research has shown that an individual who could well balance between independence and emotional bonding in his/her parent-child relationship has relatively better development and adjustment. However, past literature on separation-individuation focused mainly on individual’s psychological adjustments rather than on its effects on parent-child relationships. The current study argued that adolescents’ leaving home to college provides a natural circumstance to examine this process. On the one hand, the separation between parents and children highlights the issue of separation-individuation. On the other hand, the parent-child relationship also faces a process of reconstruction to maintain their relationships. In Taiwan, the cultural emphasize on emotional bonding in parent-child relationships makes this issue especially significant, the present study was to investigate how the interaction effect of these two forces would affect the parent-child relationship for adolescents away from home.
The present study adopted separation-individuation and attachment quality to conceptualize the “separation” and “unification” forces in parent-child relationship and to illustrate they join forces on parent-child relationship. It was hypothesized that the individuation would have a negative effect on parent-child relationship. However, if the relationship is able to provide a solid emotional bonding, the negative effects from individuation would be diminished. That is, attachment quality serves as a moderator on the relationship between individuation and parent-child relationship satisfaction. In addition, it was also hypothesized that actual social interactions between parent and child mediated the buffering effect of attachment quality on the parent-child relationship satisfaction.
Two studies were conducted to examine these hypotheses. Study 1 investigated the buffering effect of attachment quality on the negative relationship between individuation and parent-child relationship satisfaction. Study 2 replicated the results of study 1, and further examined the mediation effect of actual social interactions to see if actual social interactions would mediate the buffering effect of attachment quality on the parent-child relationship satisfaction. Results showed that although individuation had negative effect on parent-child relationship satisfaction, however, the stronger the emotional bonding in the parent-child relationship , the weaker negative effect was observed. These results highlighted the “balance” between separation and unification forces. Furthermore, the mediation effect of actual interaction on the buffering effect of attachment quality was also significant.
Subjects
離家
親子關係
分離個體化
依戀
親子互動
Leaving home
parent-child relationship
separation-individuation
attachment quality
parent-child interaction.
Type
other
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Loading...
Name
ntu-94-R91227016-1.pdf
Size
23.53 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):753b668034ecfad6f4b3f5584f111aa8