“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.