Perceived Parenting and Separation-Individuation in Belgian College Students: Associations with Emotional Adjustment

ABSTRACT

The present study examined associations among perceived parenting, separation-individuation, and emotional adjustment in a convenience sample of college students in Belgium (N = 350; 68% female; aged 18 to 26). In line with a conceptual model advanced in the literature, factor analysis supported the distinction between three dimensions of separation-individuation: overdependence and healthy separation (both of which had already been described in earlier research) and a new dimension, labeled excessive autonomy. Path analysis findings were consistent with a mediational model in which lower quality of perceived parenting predicted more excessive autonomy, which in turn predicted poorer emotional adjustment. In addition, healthy separation predicted superior emotional adjustment, whereas overdependence was not associated with this particular type of adjustment. Implications for current understanding of the process of separation-individuation in college students and of excessive autonomy, in particular, are discussed.

Keywords:

• separation-individuation
• perceived parenting
• emotional adjustment
• path model
• Belgium
• college students

Acknowledgments

The authors are greatly indebted to the students in the second year of medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium) who participated in the study; to Jeanne Vanhalst for her assistance with the figure; to Koen Luyckx for his insightful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript; and to Julie Burton, Doris Van Cleemput, Françoise Bury, and Emilie Batselaere for their assistance in data collection. Special thanks go to Peter De Geynst and a North-American colleague, Caroline Collignon, for their assistance in the back-translation of the questionnaire measures used.