Relational aspects of identity: late adolescents' perceptions of their relationships with parents.
This study examines the relationship between late adolescents' identity status and their memories of their relationships to their parents. One hundred male and female undergraduates completed two questionnaires. The first assessed subjects' retrospective perceptions of their affective relationships with parents across five age periods: 1 to 5 years, 5 to 10 years, 10 to 15 years, 15 to 20 years, and the present. The second questionnaire, the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status, assessed subjects' current identity status. Trend analyses revealed: (1) a significant quadratic trend in identity committed subjects' ratings of the amount of love they felt for mother across the five age periods, and (2) a significant linear trend of increasing love from mother. In contrast, uncommitted subjects showed significant linear trends of decreasing love both for and from their mothers. Results are interpreted as evidence of the importance of resolution of identity issues to the establishment of feelings of intimacy between late adolescents and their parents.
Weinmann
L L
LL
Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122.
Newcombe
N
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D007207:Individuation; D007223:Infant; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012649:Self Concept