title: "Why do they have to grow up so fast?" Parental separation anxiety and emerging adults' pathology of separation-individuation.
abstract: This study examined associations between parental separation anxiety, controlling parenting, and difficulties in the separation-individuation process, as manifested in separation-individuation pathology. In a sample of emerging adults involved in the process of home leaving (N = 232) and their parents, it was found that parental separation anxiety is positively related to separation-individuation pathology in emerging adults. Dependency-oriented controlling parenting served as an intervening variable in the relationship between parents' feelings of separation anxiety and pathology of the separation-individuation process in emerging adults. These associations were not moderated by emerging adults' residential status (i.e., living with parents or (semi-)independently), suggesting that parental characteristics and behaviors remain important antecedents of separation-individuation pathology even when one no longer lives in the parental household.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental, Personality and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Evie.Kins@UGent.be
authors.forename: Evie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kins
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Soenens
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Beyers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult