Separation anxiety in parents of adolescents: theoretical significance and scale development.
Parents of adolescents commonly face separation-related issues associated with children's increasing independence and imminent leave-taking. The aims of this investigation were (1) to develop a reliable and valid measure of parental emotions associated with separation and (2) to validate the measure by relating it to other attributes (attachment relationship quality, parent-child communication, and parent-adolescent differentiation) assessed in mothers, fathers, and their adolescents. The newly constructed, 35-item Parents of Adolescents Separation Anxiety Scale (PASAS) was administered to 686 parents of teenagers in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 or college-bound freshmen and seniors. Factor analyses supported formation of two subscales: Anxiety about Adolescent Distancing (AAD) and Comfort with Secure Base Role (CSBR); both subscales showed distinctive patterns of change with child age. Parents' reports indicated that healthy adult attachment styles were associated with lower AAD and higher CSBR scores; children of parents who had higher AAD scores reported lower quality of attachment to both mothers and fathers.
Department of Human Development and Family Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA. hock.1@osu.edu
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Hock
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Eberly
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Bartle-Haring
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Ellwanger
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Widaman
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires