Psychological Separation Inventory Research Articles

Separation-individuation from family of origin and marital adjustment of recently married couples

An optimal level of individuation from parents is believed to be necessary for healthy adjustment of newly married young adults. To explore this assertion, applications for marriage licenses were used to identify 25 heterosexual couples between the ages of 19 and 30, married between 6 and 13 months. Spouses completed surveys containing the Psychological Separation Inventory (J. A. Hoffman, 1984), with ratings for both parents on four scales of separation-individuation, and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (G. B. Spanier, 1976, 1989), measuring marital satisfaction. Linear and curvilinear correlations suggested that husbands' broad individuation from their mothers and functional individuation from their fathers has an important influence on both the husbands' and the wives' adjustment to the new marriage. Curvilinear, but not linear significant relationships were found between wives' individuation from parents and husbands' marital satisfaction.

Social desirability effects on measures of adjustment to university, independence from parents, and self-efficacy.

Results of regression analyses on data from 96 first-year undergraduates indicated that social desirability (Jackson and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scales), particularly scores on the Jackson scale, is related strongly to scores on measures of adjustment (Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire), self-efficacy (Hale-Fibel Generalized Expectation for Success Scale), and independence (Psychological Separation Inventory) from mother, but not from father. In addition, both the Jackson and Marlowe-Crowne scales were correlated highly. Independence from parents and self-efficacy each continued to show a relationship with adjustment to university after social desirability effects were removed. Failure to remove the effect(s) of social desirability from the present measures is likely to lead to inflated estimates of their relation to each other or to other measures.

The Mother-Daughter Relationship and Psychological Separation in Adolescence

Fifty pairs of mothers and their 15 to 18-year-old daughters participated in a study that investigated the role of the mother-daughter relationship in the process of psychological separation in adolescence. Psychological separation was expected to be predicted by maternal empathy and by the conceptual complexity of the self and object representations of the mothers and daughters. Psychological separation of the daughter was measured by the Psychological Separation Inventory (PSI) and a combination of two PSI subscales. The mother's capacity for empathic understanding of her daughter was determined by a congruence score derived from the Offer Parent-Adolescent Questionnaire and the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire. Mothers and daughters wrote brief descriptions of themselves and each other, which were scored for conceptual complexity. Although the total PSI score was not predicted by the Congruence score and the complexity of the representations, when combined Conflictual and Emotional Independence subscales...

Undergraduates' conflictual independence, adjustment, and alcohol use: the importance of the mother-student relationship.

This study investigated conflictual independence from parents (defined as a relationship free of anger and resentment), adjustment, and alcohol use among college students at a midwestern technical university (N = 109). Results showed that adjustment, as measured by the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (1989), was associated with having achieved conflictual independence from one's parents as measured by Hoffman's (1984) Psychological Separation Inventory. Additionally, greater alcohol use was associated with having achieved less conflictual independence from parents; the most frequent and strongest relationships occurred with respect to the mother-student relationship. The results suggested that the parent-student relationship has an impact on late adolescent development and that it also may play a role in alcohol use by college students.

Individuation and Adult Children of Alcoholics

42 adult male and 99 female volunteers from the Washington and Baltimore areas were administered the Psychological Separation Inventory, the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire, the Adult Child of Alcoholics Screening Test, the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, and the Symptom-Checklist-90--R in a study of variables associated with the development of psychopathology of adult children of alcoholics. Individuation evolving from family dynamics rather than from intrapsychic individuation was more crucial to the development of psychopathology.