Emotional detachment moderates the association between students’ perceptions of parental support and first-year college adjustment

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Grace Yeeun Lee (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Anne Fletcher

Abstract: Parental support during the transition to college has been associated with late adolescents’ adjustment. Adolescents begin to seek greater autonomy by individuating from parents to achieve the ultimate goal of independent identity (Blos, 1979). However, in order to achieve individuation process, a balance is required between independence and emotional connection to parents (Ryan & Lynch, 1989). This thesis considered the extent to which parental support was beneficial to adjustment in college as well as whether emotional detachment moderated associations between parental support and adjustment. A sample of 384 first-year college students completed self-report questionnaires on parental support, emotional detachment from parents and college adjustment. Higher levels of parental social support were associated with greater academic adjustment, social adjustment, and institutional attachment. Higher levels of emotional detachment were associated with greater institutional attachment. Emotional detachment moderated the association between parental support and college adjustment, but the nature of such effects differed based on generational status. For first-generation students, lower levels of parental social support were associated with greater levels of academic adjustment when students were highly emotionally attached to parents but associated with lower levels of academic adjustment when students were very detached from parents. For continuing generation students, higher levels of parental social support were associated with greater levels of personal-emotional adjustment when students were emotionally attached to parents but associated with lower levels of personal-emotional adjustment when students were extremely detached from parents. Generational status and emotional detachment from parents are two important factors that should be taken into account when considering how parental support may benefit adjustment in college.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2019
Keywords
College Adjustment, Emotional Autonomy, Emotional Detachment, First-Generation College Students, Late Adolescence, Parental Support
Subjects
College freshmen $x Psychology
College students $x Family relationships
Parent and teenager $x Psychological aspects
Emotions in adolescence

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