Detachment From Parents,Problem Behaviors,and the Moderating Role of Parental Support Among Italian Adolescents

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of emotional detachment from parents, parental support, and problem behaviors and focused on the unique and common contribution that detachment and parental support made to internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. A total of 461 young adolescents, 13 to 14 years old (M = 13.4; SD = 0.44), 234 boys and 227 girls, completed self-reporting measures of detachment, parental support, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Data showed that detachment was related positively to internalizing problem behaviors. Results revealed that parental support played a moderating role in the relationship between detachment and internalizing problems, such that, at higher levels of detachment, internalizing problems tended to be lower when parental support was high.

Keywords

adolescents detachment behavioral problems parental support parent/child relations

A large amount of research has stressed the strong effects that transformations in social relations can play in an individual’s process of emotional separation from his or her parents during adolescence and in emotional well-being deriving from this process (Bostik & Everall, 2006; Rutter, 2007). This is particularly true during early adolescence, which represents a transitional period characterized by the first important changes in many domains: psychological, cognitive, and social-relational. Although there is a large consensus about the importance of the path toward autonomy and its inevitability during adolescence (Noom, Deković, & Meeus, 1999; Spear & Kulbok, 2004), the relationship between this process and adjustment has been the subject of controversy.

On the one hand, according to Steinberg and Silverberg (1986), autonomy has been associated with adaptive outcomes and with indices of psychosocial well-being, such as resistance to external pressure, self-reliance, and emotional maturity. On the other hand, according to Ryan and Lynch (1989), autonomy has often acquired a meaning of emotional detachment and has been associated with negative family functioning. From this latter perspective, the more adolescents are detached, the less they feel connected or secure in the family, the less they experience their parents as conveying love and understanding, and the less they report willingness to draw on parental resources.

During the past years, several empirical studies in different countries have confirmed Ryan and Lynch’s (1989) position. For example, in Belgium, Beyers and Goossens (1999) have underlined that autonomy was associated with a negative pattern of adjustment; in Italy, Lo Coco, Pace, and Zappulla (2000) have found that high levels of autonomy were related to depressive feelings and the internalization of problems; in India, Tung and Dhillon (2006) emphasized that family cohesion had significant negative correlations with emotional autonomy dimensions. Moreover, Beyers and Goossens’s (2003) study of Belgian university students revealed that the sense of independence was linked with lower levels of positive separation feelings, but this relation was moderated by gender, age, and parental style; the association was significant only among younger girls with a perception of parenting as authoritarian.

Starting from these results, Beyers and colleagues (Beyers & Goossens, 2003; Beyers, Goossens, Van Calster, & Duriez, 2005) proposed distinguishing between two types of emotional autonomy from parents: a wholesome separation from parents, involving “a move away from childhood representations of parents, not accompanied by negative feelings toward them” (Beyers et al., 2005, p. 154), and a more conflicting and radical detachment from parents, related to distrust and perceived alienation from them. In this sense, if separation represents the positive way toward individuation and is associated with adolescents’ well-being, then detachment may be described as the unhealthy face of the adolescent autonomy process, characterized by disengagement from emotional bonds toward parents, owing to feelings of distrust and the perception of alienation from them. For this reason, detachment could be related to adolescent maladjustment (Beyers et al., 2005).

In the Italian context, dimensions of separation and detachment have been compared with several developmental indicators, both adaptive and maladaptive. Particularly, Pace and Zappulla (2009, 2010) have argued that separation was positively correlated to satisfaction with self, whereas detachment was negatively correlated to all the domains of personal satisfaction. Moreover, emotional detachment from parents positively predicted depressive feelings and suicidal ideation, but only among boys.

Nevertheless, as Silverberg and Gondoli (1996) argued, the debate on the adolescent’s process toward individuation should be discussed based on the role that family might play in determining the valence for emotional detachment. An autonomy that can lead to adaptive outcomes might only be developed through a positive sense of connection with parents (Garber & Little, 2001; Silverberg & Gondoli, 1996). Continuity in the parent–adolescent relationship may help adolescents to interpret and give sense to the many changes with which they have to cope (Grotevant & Cooper, 1986; Offer, Ostrov, & Howard, 1981).

According to Allen and colleagues (Allen, Hauser, O’Connor, & Bell, 2002), the construction of the parent–adolescent relationship based on both autonomy and relatedness can be conceived as a salient task in the development of personal and social adaptive outcomes during this period of life. Another article underlined that the failure to achieve autonomy while maintaining a positive relationship with parents can be linked to negative affects in adolescents (Allen, Hauser, Eickholt, Bell, & O’Connor, 1994).

In the first phases of adolescence, the extent of transformations in the different domains of life are often very stressful and may have a negative impact on youngsters (Byrne & Mazanov, 2002; Davis, 2003), especially if they cannot rely on their parents for emotional support. The amount of difficulties evidenced by adolescents and their lack of coping skills have been linked to several maladaptive outcomes, such as internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors (Hempel & Petermann, 2006; Pace & Zappulla, 2011).

Conversely, parental emotional support has been associated with the development of self-esteem and mental health in adolescent samples (Rowlison & Felner, 1988; Williams, Barclay, & Schmied, 2004) and as a moderating factor in the outbreak of depression among girls (Piko, 1998). It has been suggested that living in a supportive familial context can moderate the maladaptive meaning of adolescents’ detachment from family (Slavin & Rainer, 1990). When adolescents reach high levels of emotional autonomy without perceiving themselves to be accompanied and supported by a warm family, they show many indices of maladjustment (Lo Coco, Ingoglia, Zappulla, & Pace, 2001).

For adolescents, the move away from parents is a developmental need, but it seems to assume a negative meaning if they feel that parents do not maintain themselves as an emotional support resource (Cacioppo, Pace, & Zappulla, 2012; Pace, Cacioppo, & Schimmenti, 2012). During this stage of life, intergenerational ambivalence increases when parents or children experience role transitions that create contradictory expectations or developmental changes that alter their relative dependence (Pillemer & Suitor, 2005). In this period, intergenerational relationships are most likely characterized by high levels of ambivalence due to the conflicts between independence and closeness. In light of these considerations, it seems important to explore the way in which independence, in terms of detachment, and closeness, in terms of support, relate with each other determining different levels of well-being.

The Present Study

The present study examined the relationship of emotional detachment from parents, parental support, and problem behaviors and focused on the unique and common contribution that detachment and parental support made to internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. We hypothesized that detachment and parental support would have significant effects on internalizing and externalizing problems, both singly and jointly. We expected that high levels of emotional detachment would be related to adolescents’ internalizing behaviors. Moreover, we expected that, at high levels of detachment, the rate of internalizing problems would be more elevated in the cases of low levels of parental support.

Method

Participants

The participants in the study were 461 young adolescents (234 boys and 227 girls), 13 to 14 years old (M = 13.4; SD = 0.44), attending the first class of three public high schools located in different cities in southern Italy. We selected the schools as being representative of the socioeconomic structure of the Italian middle-class population in general, based on local census data. The homogeneity of socioeconomic status was controlled by means of the Hollingshead’s Index (1975). The majority (89%) of the participants’ parents was skilled workers and had a high school (38%) or college (49%) degree. To recruit participants, we employed a “passive” consent procedure (i.e., informing the parents in advance about the nature of the study and providing the opportunity for the parents to call our research office if they did not want their child participating in the study). We sent letters to the parents of the students in the target classes informing them of the nature of the study. We provided an opportunity to contact the child’s school or our office about the project. There were no parents who objected to the involvement of their child in the study. We obtained the assent from all participants in the study. From a total sample of 470 respondents, the majority provided useable data; only nine questionnaires were rejected due to many missing answers. All the participants were Caucasian. Most of the participants (91%) came from intact two-parent families.

Procedure

We collected data on detachment from parents, emotional support from parents, and problem behaviors from the adolescents during school visits conducted in April and May 2011. Participants filled out the questionnaires in their classroom. Two research assistants were available to provide assistance if necessary and to ensure independent responses. We obtained demographic information for the subjects by means of a brief list of questions included in the self-report measures. The ethical norms of the research were respected, and it was approved by the Italian Psychology Association.

Measures

Emotional detachment from parents

The Italian validation (Meleddu & Scalas, 2002) of the Emotional Autonomy Scale (Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986) was administered to assess the level of adolescents’ emotional detachment from parents. The scale consisted of 20 items originally comprising four components of emotional autonomy: Perception of Parents as People, Parental De-idealization, Nondependency on Parents, and Individuation. For each item, adolescents were asked to answer on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). In the present study, we considered the alternative factor structure proposed by Beyers et al. (2005), in which two higher-order factors were substituted for the original factor structure. The first higher-order factor was called Separation (obtained by summing items of the original scales De-idealization and Nondependency and two items of Individuation). The second one was called Detachment (obtained by summing items of the original scale Perception of Parents as People and two items of Individuation). Internal consistency of this measure in the Italian sample is comparable to that of the Belgian sample (Separation: 12 items, Cronbach’s α = .76; Detachment: 8 items, Cronbach’s α = .64; Pace & Zappulla, 2009, 2010). Because of the specific focus of this study, we considered only the detachment score (e.g., “I have often wondered how my parents act when I am not around”). A weighted sum of detachment (weighted by the number of items in the scale) was computed for each participant, with a higher score indicating a higher level of detachment from parents.

Parental support

The Perceived Emotional/Personal Support Scale (Slavin, 1991) was administered to assess perceived emotional support. The questionnaire was translated into Italian and then back-translated by a native speaker to ensure its comparability with the English version. Adolescents were instructed to list the gender and first initial of three significant people in each of their main relationship categories: parents, friends/peers, and nonfamily adults. For the present study, we used only the parent’s category. Using a 4-point scale (1 = hardly at all; 4 = very much), participants answered the following questions about both parents together: “How much do you talk to them about personal concerns?” “How close do you feel to them?” and “How satisfied are you with the help and support they give you?” A parental support variable was obtained by averaging the ratings to the three questions. Cronbach’s alpha for the parent support scale for the present sample was .86.

Internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors

The Youth Self-Report (YSR; Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1987) was administered to assess adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. The questionnaire was translated into Italian and then back-translated by a native speaker to ensure its comparability with the English version. The measure consisted of 113 items concerning internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, to which subjects were asked to answer on a 3-point scale (0 = not at all true; 2 = often true). As previously found (Pace & Zappulla, 2010a), also on this sample, confirmatory factor analysis performed on the translated version of the YSR confirmed the original structure with two factors: internalizing (Cronbach’s α = .75) and externalizing (Cronbach’s α = .74). Higher scores indicated greater levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. A weighted sum of behavioral problems (weighted by the number of items in the scale) was computed for each participant, with higher scores indicating higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems.

Data Analysis

We conducted preliminary analyses, including descriptive statistics on the independent and dependent variables, and intercorrelations between all the variables. To examine the unique and common contributions of the variables in predicting problem behaviors, we conducted a set of regression analyses using behavioral problems as the dependent variable with gender, detachment from parents, and parental support as the predictor variables. In the first step, we entered gender into the regression analyses to serve as a control variable. In the second and third steps, we added detachment and support variables as predictors, respectively. In the fourth step, we included the interaction between detachment and support. We assessed multicollinearity of variables using the variance inflation factor (VIF), which is a measure of the amount of multicollinearity in a set of multiple regression variables; VIF values >10 indicate collinearity. Moreover, to minimize problems of multicollinearity and to ease interpretation of the regression coefficients, we centered all continuous variables by standardizing to a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1 (Aiken & West, 1991). We created interaction terms by multiplying the standardized scores. In a final step, we probed the significant interaction by using the procedure recommended by Aiken and West (1991) and Holmbeck (2002). We restructured the significant regression equation to express the regressions of behavioral problems on detachment from parents at levels of the moderator variables (parental support).

Results

Preliminary Analyses: Descriptive Statistics and Intercorrelations

To explore gender differences in the levels of detachment, parental support, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors, we conducted one-way analysis of variances. The data presented in Table 1 show significant differences for the internalizing score, F(1, 457) = 16.11, p < .000, and for externalizing score, F(1, 455) = 25.16, p < .000. In comparison to boys, girls reported higher levels of internalizing problems and lower levels of externalizing problems.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of All the Study Variables.

	Boys (n = 234)		Girls (n = 227)
	M	SD	M	SD	F(1, 460)
Detachment	1.82	0.52	1.90	0.51	2.36
Parental support	2.40	1.01	2.34	1.07	0.41
Internalizing problems	0.54	0.32	0.67	0.31	16.11***
Externalizing problems	0.68	0.20	0.42	0.26	25.16***

***

p < .000.

We used correlational analyses to investigate the interrelationships among detachment, parental support, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors. The data showed that detachment was positively related to internalizing behaviors (r = .30, p < .01) and to externalizing behaviors (r = .22, p < .05). Parental support was negatively related to internalizing behaviors (r = −.25, p < .01) and unrelated to externalizing problems (r = −.13, ns). The correlation matrix is shown in Table 2.

Table 2.

Intercorrelations Between All the Study Variables.

	Parental Support	Internalizing Problems	Externalizing Problems
Detachment	−.23*	.30**	.22*
Parental support	—	−.25**	−.13
Internalizing problems		—	.33**

p < .05. **p < .01.

The Contribution of Detachment and Parental Support to Problem Behaviors

We conducted two separate regression analyses using internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors as dependent variables. The overall model was significant for internalizing problems, F(6, 457) = 12.01, p < .000, but not for externalizing problems, F(6, 457) = 1.83, ns. The results of regression analyses, conducted to examine whether the variables in each step made a unique contribution to explaining variance in internalizing problems (Table 3), revealed that detachment was a significant positive predictor, R² = .12, F(1, 455) = 44.01, p < .000, whereas parental support was a significant negative predictor, R² = .12, F(2, 453) = 15.72, p < .001. Gender was not a significant predictor. As far as the interactions are concerned, the results of regression analysis were significant, R² = .14, F(2, 451) = 4.28, p < .01, with the interaction between detachment and parental support emerging as a significant negative predictor. The VIF for detachment was 1.01 and for parental support 1.02, indicating minimal collinearity.

Table 3.

Regression Analyses Predicting Internalizing Behavior From Detachment and Support Variables.

	Internalizing Behavior
Independent Variables	B	SE	β
Step 1
Sex	.02	.03	.05
Step 2
Detachment	.17	.03	.29***
Step 3
Parental support	−.10	.05	−.11**
Step 4
Detachment × Parental support	−.02	.01	−.13**

Note. R² = .03 for Step 1; R² = .12 for Step 2; R² = .12 for Step 3; ΔR² = .13 for Step 4 (ps < .01).

p < .01. ***p < .000.

We probed the significant interaction between detachment and parental support following the procedure recommended by Aiken and West (1991) and Holmbeck (2002). We restructured the regression equation to express the regression of internalizing problem behaviors on detachment at levels of parental support. The values of parental support chosen corresponded to 1 SD above the mean (high) and 1 SD below the mean (low). These equations are plotted in Figure 1 to display the interaction.

Figure 1.

Interaction between detachment and parental support in the prediction of internalizing problem behaviors.

The strongest relationship between detachment and internalizing problem behaviors was obtained for the adolescents who had a lower level of parental support. The simple slope for the high level of parental support was significantly different from zero (β = .16, p < .01), and the simple slope for the low level of parental support was significantly different from zero (β = −.22, p < .01). As indicated, the simple slopes of internalizing problem behaviors tended to differ from one another as a function of the value of parental support. Thus, when parental support was lower, higher levels of detachment were associated with higher levels of internalizing problems, whereas lower levels of detachment were associated with lower levels of internalizing problems. On the other hand, when parental support was higher, higher levels of detachment were associated with lower levels of internalizing problems, whereas lower levels of detachment were associated with higher levels of internalizing problems. It is important to note that the slopes for high and low values of the moderator differed in sign, indicating that, for the interaction effect, associations between detachment and internalizing problems differed in direction (positive or negative) depending on the level of moderator.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of emotional detachment from parents, parental support, and problem behaviors focusing on the unique and common contribution that detachment and parental support made to internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems.

Regarding the bivariate correlations between variables, emotional detachment was positively related to both internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors, whereas parental support was negatively related to internalizing problem behaviors but unrelated to externalizing problem behaviors.

Consistent with the literature (Beyers & Goossens, 2003), the positive relationship between emotional detachment and negative outcomes confirmed how critical the process can be whereby adolescents relinquish their emotional dependency on their parents. Early adolescence, in particular, as the very first passage from childhood to adulthood, implies a deep destabilization of personality and a loss of points of reference (Granic, Hollenstein, Dishion, & Patterson, 2003). Consequently, during this period, the social-relational network must be reorganized: The primary bond of the child with mother and father changes into a more equal relationship between adolescent and parents. The ambivalence between familial certainties and one’s own independence may lead the youngsters, both boys and girls, who are involved in the process toward autonomy to display difficulties both of an inner nature and in the management of increasingly demanding life events typical of this phase of development. The need for autonomy in emerging adulthood takes the place of childhood dependence, but relying on parents’ support during this developmental path would decrease ambivalence in parent–child relationships.

As expected, parental support was negatively related to internalizing behaviors, confirming the relevant role of parents in decreasing levels of emotional problems (Helsen, Vollebergh, & Meeus, 2000). What was unexpected was the lack of a significant association between parental support and externalizing problems. Some empirical research underlines that, despite the numerous evidences of an inverse relation between parental support and externalizing behavior, the association has been often inconsistent (Maccoby & Martin, 1983).

The results from the interactions confirmed that parents still played an important role in moderating the relationship between emotional detachments and internalizing behavioral problems. The data showed a significant effect of the interaction between emotional detachment and parental support in predicting internalizing problem behaviors: At higher levels of detachment, behavioral internalizing problems tended to be lower when parental support was high and higher when parental support was low. These findings revealed that the positive relationship between detachment and internalizing problems changed in young adolescents with high levels of parental support.

It seems that when the youngsters’ tendency toward autonomy is played out in a warm familial context, they feel less alone and less unaided. Emotional detachment is characterized by a sense of anxiety and worry for the young adolescents who, while conflicting with and moving away from parents, need to know that their parents are still there and are supportive. In this sense, if at first glance the copresence of emotional detachment from parents and parental support may appear strange or unclear, when we take into account the complexity of the relationship between parents and adolescents we can suppose that, from the perspective of the adolescent, detachment may not be considered as the pole of a continuum that sees emotional parental support on the opposite side. Probably, if detachment is an adolescent task, then emotional support is a parental task. In this sense, the one should not exclude the other, and vice versa.

If the moderating role that parental support played toward internalizing problems when detachment was high may be considered in line with the literature, the link between low levels of detachment and low parental support in the prediction of internalizing problems is unexpected and needs some more consideration. Data underline that at lower levels of detachment, internalizing problems tended to be lower when parental support was low and to be higher when parental support was high: It seems that when adolescents feel their process of separation-individuation as not problematic (lower level of detachment), parental emotional closeness may have a reverse role than when this process is ambivalent. So in a nonmaladaptive path toward autonomy, adolescents may consider a high level of parental support as excessive, or a sort of intrusion.

Certainly, these data need to be better investigated, because the difference between low parental support and high parental support at low level of detachment, even if significant, was small. A more complex model of the relations studied here, for example, by adding other parent–child outcomes such as perceived parenting styles, should be more helpful.

Taken together, the findings suggest how much complex the patterns are toward adolescent autonomy: We might say that the question of emotional autonomy should be considered more than a simple dichotomy between autonomy and detachment. Indeed, it is a multifaceted process that involves the individual’s capability to manage the most important task of a healthy adolescence: on the one hand, overcoming the deep ambivalence that originates from the loss of familial bonds, and on the other hand, searching for one’s own independence.

Recent research has underlined how ambivalence within the family context may be particularly high in intergenerational relationships during adolescence and low during the transition to young adulthood as individuals seek autonomy and establish themselves in adult roles such as leaving the home (Noack & Buhl, 2004).

Strengths and Limitations

The study represents an important contribution to the analysis of the complex and ambivalent relationship between parents and children during adolescence, showing how, from the perspective of young adolescents, parents become, simultaneously, figures from whom to escape emotionally and to remain emotionally connected for better health. Despite this, the study has some limitations, all of which suggest rewarding avenues for further research. First of all, it only included Italian participants. It would be interesting to reproduce the same research in other countries, where the process toward adolescent emotional self-determination within family contexts might have diverse connotations. Moreover, all the obtained information was collected by self-report measures, that is, the accuracy of individual reporters cannot be assured. Furthermore, we collected all the data at a single point in time to focus specifically on the issues of the co-occurrence of detachment and problem behaviors during the first steps of adolescent development. For these reasons, it would be more correct to underline the relations among variables rather than the predicting role. Future longitudinal research could investigate the paths that personal autonomy, support from different sources, and adjustment undertaken during development. Moreover, longitudinal research would permit the research to focus on emotional detachment as a process.

Despite these limitations, the findings from this study demonstrate that the quality of the parent–child relationship can help determine the adaptive or maladaptive outcomes during the process of emotional separation of adolescents.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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