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Romantic Relationships in Emerging Adulthood
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Gembeck, Melanie J. Zimmer‐ Madsen, Stephanie D. |
| Copyright Year | 2012 |
| Abstract | Multiple forms of adolescent autonomy (emotional autonomy, voice, and cognitive autonomy) were examined as correlates of parental and partner relationships. Measures included parental warmth and psychological control, and romantic support and negative interactions. Participants were 206 students (age 17 to 20, age M = 18) who had romantic partners. Those who reported more emotional autonomy from parents (e.g., individuation and nondependence) reported less voice with parents and less cognitive autonomy. Adolescents reported less independence from their parents, more voice with parents and more confidence in their own choices when they reported more parental warmth. Adolescents reported less independence from their parents and less voice with their when their parents were more controlling. Participants reported more independence from parents and more voice when they reported more romantic partner support. The results show how necessary it is to consider multiple aspects of autonomy and relationships to understand how the intrapersonal and interpersonal are connected. Relationships, autonomy, and voice 3 Connecting the Intrapersonal to the Interpersonal: Autonomy, Voice, Parents, and Romantic Relationships in Emerging Adults In most Western societies gains in autonomy are considered representative of advances in maturity. Moreover, autonomy development is described as one of the developmental tasks of adolescence and emerging adulthood (Connolly & Goldberg, 1999; Noom, Deković, & Meeus, 2001; Zimmer-Gembeck & Collins, 2003). Children are socialised to gain greater selfsufficiency and to relinquish many dependencies on parents. In some classic theories, this increasing nondependence and individuation from parents is described as normative and a desirable marker of autonomy development (Blos, 1967). Drawing from these writings, classic research focused on the development of emotional autonomy from parents, which Steinberg and Silverberg (1986) defined as parental deidealisation, individuation from parents, nondependency on parents, and perceiving parents as people. Such aspects of autonomy may become increasingly typical as adolescents and emerging adults get older (Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986), but emotional autonomy from parents has also been found to represent greater detachment from parents at any age (Beyers et al., 2003; Ryan & Lynch, 1989). Many developmentalists have recognised that reliance on others is normative at all ages, and that autonomy need not reflect nondependence (Collins, Laursen, Mortensen, Luebker, & Ferreira, 1997; Hill & Holmbeck, 1986; Zimmer-Gembeck & Collins, 2003). Autonomy, in all its forms, is expected to arise from and be supported by positive social relationships. More specifically, autonomy and other self-related processes might be promoted by close, supportive connections with family, friends and partners throughout life (e.g., see Beyers & Goossens, 2008; Ryan & Deci, 2002). From this perspective, autonomy may be reflected in the capacity to voice one’s opinions and beliefs when interacting with parents and others, and to be capable of Relationships, autonomy, and voice 4 greater self-regulation in the domains of cognition, emotion and behavior. In fact, such cognitive and behavioral self-regulation may be reflected in participation in decision-making, which is a frequently named identifying characteristic of adolescent and emerging adult autonomy strivings (e.g., McElhaney & Allen, 2001). Such participation depends on voicing opinions to others, making this an important component of autonomy. Voice has been defined as the authentic selfexpression that includes voicing one’s true opinions (Harter, Waters, Whitesell, & Kastelic, 1998) or the articulation of needs, feelings and experiences when interacting with others (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule, 1986). Although voice has not typically been studied as an aspect of autonomous functioning, it is consistent with some views of autonomy. For example, autonomy recently has been described as including being confident in having a say or “voice” when interacting with others (Beyers et al., 2003; Zimmer-Gembeck & Collins, 2003). In other research, the focus has been on cognitive autonomy. Some autonomy theorists drawing from cognitive perspectives have used the term to encompass general decision-making capacity and confidence in independent actions (Beyers et al., 2003; Noom et al., 2001). For example, after identifying the many elements of autonomy mentioned in previous theory and research, Noom et al. (2001) defined autonomy to include three elements – attitudinal, emotional, and functional autonomy. Attitudinal autonomy was defined as “the ability to specify several options, to make a decision, and to define a goal” (p. 578). Emotional autonomy was defined as “a feeling of confidence in one’s own choices and goals” (p. 581). Functional autonomy was defined as “the ability to develop a strategy to achieve one’s goals” (p. 581). In this study, we measured these three aspects of autonomy and, to avoid confusion with emotional autonomy from parents, refer to them as cognitive autonomy or more specifically as attitudinal, socioemotional and functional autonomy. Relationships, autonomy, and voice 5 Regardless of which perspective on autonomy is focal, adolescent and emerging adults’ feelings of autonomy and displays of autonomous behaviour typically undergo substantial transformation because of advances in physical, cognitive and social development (ZimmerGembeck, Ducat, & Collins, in press). The quality of a young person’s relationships with parents also can be an important contributor to the successful negotiation of individual development, especially in the domains of emotional autonomy from parents and voice (Collins & Sroufe, 1999; Connolly & Goldberg, 1999; Smetana & Gettman, 2006). Hence, the current study aims were guided by theories emphasizing how an intrapersonal developmental process, such as autonomy, has a foundation in interpersonal relationships, thus linking intrapersonal autonomy to the interpersonal domain. In particular, theorists have highlighted the importance of adolescents remaining connected to significant others (e.g., parents) while developing autonomy (Hill & Holmbeck, 1986; Ryan, Deci, & Grolnick, 1995), and the possibility that close relationships inside and outside the home are part of the individuation process in that they provide a context in which to enact autonomous attitudes, emotions, and behaviours, and provide support for autonomy development (Blos, 1967; Connolly & Goldberg, 1999; Gray & Steinberg, 1999; Zimmer-Gembeck & Collins, 2003; Zimmer-Gembeck, Ducat, & Collins, 2011). Positive qualities of parent-adolescent relationships, such as warmth and involvement, have been associated with positive outcomes for young people including self-reliance (Barber, 1996; Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbusch, 1991), and low parental warmth has been associated with deficits in skills among adolescents (Barber, 2002; Steinberg, 1997). For example, the presence of parental psychological control (i.e., invalidating feelings, inducing guilt, and making acceptance contingent on a young person’s behaviour; Barber & Olsen, 1994) has been associated with greater dependence on parents (Ryan & Lynch, study 2, 1989; Soenens, Relationships, autonomy, and voice 6 Vansteenkiste, & Luyten, 2010). The first aim of the current study was to examine associations between three different conceptualisations of autonomy -emotional autonomy from parents, voice, and cognitive autonomy -and to test and compare their associations with parentadolescent relationship qualities of warmth and psychological control. Although there has been empirical support for the role of parent-adolescent relationships, particularly parental warmth and support, in adolescent autonomy when focusing on emotional autonomy (Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986) and voice (Harter et al., 1998), this has not been studied for cognitive autonomy. Cognitive dimensions of autonomy clearly identify goal selection, seeking, planning, and related regulatory strategies as components of autonomy. These behaviours are what many people have in mind when they discuss autonomy. What it interesting is that it is unclear how these cognitive, goal striving aspects of autonomy relate to emotional autonomy from parents and voice with parents or others. On the one hand, it seems that they may be unrelated. Goal selection and striving to pursue goals may be unrelated to emotional autonomy from parents. Cognitive aspects of autonomy may not depend on individuation from parents and nondependence on parents. Similarly, goal seeking may be unrelated to voice with others. On the other hand, it may be that emotional autonomy from parents and voice may be associated with cognitive autonomy because they make goal setting and goal pursuit more likely. Such associations were tested in the current study. Theories related to emotional autonomy, voice and cognitive autonomy have each recognised the importance of relationships for understanding adolescent autonomy and autonomy development, but there has been no previous study that has examined how parental warmth and psychological control are associated with emotional autonomy from parents, voice and cognitive autonomy. Taken together, theories suggest that autonomous functioning is more likely when Relationships, autonomy, and voice 7 adults honour and respect the adolescents' capabilities, permit and support autonomous behaviours and decision-making, maintain positive emotional connections, rarely rely on punitive or coercive parenting tactics to gain compliance or exert control, and engage in low levels of psychologically controlling behaviour (Beyers et al., 2003; Soenens, Vansteenkiste, & Sierens, 2009). Hence, associations would be expected between parent-adolescent relationships and all the forms of autonomy. Although parents remain impor |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.5860/choice.48-5167 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au/bitstream/handle/10072/42923/75170_1.pdf;jsessionid=89E2A56AB6749120B5F1FC8781947607?sequence=1 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.48-5167 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
