Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado
Connection to parents and healthy separation during adolescence: A longitudinal perspective Sujata Ponappa a, *, Suzanne Bartle-Haring a,1, Randal Day b, 2 a b
Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University, Campbell Hall, 1787 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA Brigham Young University, School of Family Life, Provo, UT 84602, USA
a b s t r a c t Keywords: Family differentiation Healthy separation Parenteadolescent connection Pubertal maturation
The purpose of our study was to investigate how connection between parents and children influences the child’s healthy separation during adolescence. We analyzed 3 waves of panel data from a study (Flourishing Families Project) of 500 families with children who were 10e13 years old at Time 1. This study includes information from the perspective of the child and his/her mother over a 4 year period for two-parent families and motherheaded households. Findings supported our hypothesis that a mutual sense of connection between mothers and adolescents supported the adolescent’s healthy separation over time, with differences due to sex of the child, ethnicity and income. Pubertal maturation was negatively associated with the sense of connection between adolescents and mothers in our sample of young adolescents. We discuss these findings in relation to previous literature. Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Adolescence is understood as a lifespan stage that involves a renegotiation of the sense of self as being separate from one’s parents and family members. This transition includes the possibility of increased conflict in the parentechild relationship, greater investment in peer relationships and emotional and cognitive fluctuations as a result of the physiological changes which accompany puberty (Short & Rosenthal, 2008; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). From a Bowen theory perspective (Bowen, 1978), the family system’s level of differentiation is related to how successfully an adolescent is able to negotiate this transition and is prepared to face the challenges of adulthood. Theoretically, individuals in well-differentiated families maintain emotional connection as well as separateness in their relationships while individuals in poorly-differentiated families experience extremes of relational connectedness or separateness due to low tolerance of one or the other in the family system (Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991). Adolescents raised in a well-differentiated family system are supported through the processes of individuation and identity formation because the system tolerates both the parents’ and adolescents’ need for connection and separateness in their relationship (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Bartle-Haring, 1997). Our hope was to better understand the relationship between connection and separateness in the parenteadolescent relationship. Our research question was- “does a sense of connection between parents and children support the child’s healthy separation during adolescence?” We use the term healthy separation to distinguish this process from the classical psychoanalytic view of adolescent individuation, which involves detachment or distancing from
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 614 292 7705. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Ponappa), [email protected] (S. Bartle-Haring), [email protected] (R. Day). 1 Tel.: þ1 614 688 3259. 2 Tel.: þ1 801 422 6415. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.04.005 0140-1971/Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
556
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
parents and a move away from connectedness or relatedness to parents (Beyers, Goossens, Vansant, & Moors, 2003; Blos, 1962). Healthy Separation and ParenteAdolescent Connection Researchers agree in general that individuation is a hallmark developmental task of adolescence. Bowen theorists would concur that healthy separation from one’s parents during adolescence does not require cutting off from family relationships but rather a reorganization of family patterns of interaction to accommodate the adolescent’s evolving identity (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Bartle-Haring, 1997; Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991). When a family system provides a balance of separateness and connectedness experiences, the adolescent is able to develop a sense of self while remaining connected with parents and other family members. However, both premature severance of parenteadolescent ties or excessive closeness in the parenteadolescent relationship are linked to risk factors such as early initiation into sexual activity, running away from home, inclusion of delinquent peers as friends, anxiety, depression and poor identity formation (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991). In the long term, unresolved issues with the family of origin during this transition have a negative impact on the individual’s differentiation of self and the ability to form and maintain intimate relationships in adulthood (Bowen, 1978). Thus, healthy separation implies the process whereby the adolescent negotiates a sense of self as separate from his or her family members while still remaining connected with them. This process paves the way for identity formation and differentiation of self in adult relationships (Bartle-Haring, 1997). A sense of emotional connection between family members, also known in the literature as ‘family cohesion’ (Olson, 2000), is positively associated with a sense of well-being and lower levels of parentechild conflict during early adolescence (Hamama & Arazi, 2012; McKinney & Renk, 2011). Family cohesion is also negatively associated with aggressive behavior (Hamama & Arazi, 2012) and early initiation of sexual activity (de Graaf, van de Schoot, Woertman, Hawk, & Meeus, 2012) during adolescence. We hypothesized that the relationship between family connection and adolescent well-being would be mediated by the adolescent’s sense of healthy separation from his or her parents. However, we were unable to find studies that explored the relationship between connection and healthy separation in the parenteadolescent relationship. For this study, our first hypothesis was that a mutual sense of connection in the parentechild relationship supports the adolescent’s healthy separation from his or her parents and other family members. Pubertal Maturation According to Steinberg and Morris (2001), puberty is associated with the development of a more egalitarian relationship between the adolescent and his/her parents. Conflict between parents and adolescents increases around the onset of puberty, however, positive affect and emotional closeness are not impacted by this seemingly increasing negativity (Holmbeck & Hill, 1991; Montemayor, Eberly, & Flannery, 1993; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Other studies suggest a negative relationship between the onset of puberty and the quality of family relationships. Puberty-related hormonal activity is linked with family problems during adolescence (Marceau, Dorn, & Susman, 2012) while being raised in environments of family conflict, divorce, negative parenting and absent fathers is associated with the earlier onset of menarche among females (Belsky et al. 2007; Short & Rosenthal, 2008; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Given the mixed evidence from studies of pubertal development and family relationships, it seems that relationships between parents and adolescents are in a state of flux during early adolescence. This may be indicative of the family system’s need to reorganize patterns of interaction between parents and maturing adolescents, so as to provide the adolescent with a “safe” environment to separate in a healthy manner. We expect that both parents and adolescents may become more adept at balancing the connection and separateness in their relationship as the adolescent advances in age and pubertal progress. Our second hypothesis was that while the onset of puberty may impact connection and healthy separation negatively, progress in pubertal maturation would be associated with higher levels of mothereadolescent connection as well as healthy separation. Contextual Variables A review of adolescent development literature in the past decade resulted in very few studies that addressed family context (structure, income, SES, etc.) with regard to adolescent individuation or differentiation. Previous literature suggests that individuation occurs normatively in all family contexts (Baumrind, 1991; Freeman & Newland, 2002; Steinberg, 1990). Freeman & Newland (2002) compared adolescent perceptions of parental control (separation) and parental responsiveness (connection) among recently divorced or separated families, intact two-parent families and single-mother families. They found that family structure did not impact either dimension of adolescent development differentially. In terms of gender, adolescent boys scored higher on their separation measure than did adolescent girls, but there were no differences on their connection measure. Socio-economic status (SES) had a differential impact on connection such that families of a lower SES reported lower connection between parents and adolescents. The researchers also found that European American adolescents reported higher connection than did AsianeAmerican or Hispanic adolescents. Older adolescents also reported greater separation from parents (Freeman & Newland, 2002).
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
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This study and others suggest that adolescents’ sense of healthy separation is not necessarily impacted by family structure, but other contextual variables may impact this developmental transition differentially. To investigate these findings further, we decided to include the adolescent’s gender and age, family ethnicity, family structure (two-parent or single-parent) and the combined household income as “control” variables in this study. Measurement of Differentiation in the Family System The influence of the family system’s level of differentiation on adolescent individuation has been well documented in the literature (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991) and several existing studies use the Differentiation in the Family System (DIFS) questionnaire (Anderson & Sabatelli, 1992) to capture this relationship. However, the items in this questionnaire combine the experiences of connectedness and separateness into a single measure and therefore, may not capture the uniqueness of each construct (Bartle-Haring, 1997). Cohen, Vasey, and Gavazzi (2003) found that a bidimensional model of family differentiation using the two theoretical elements of intimacy and individuality tolerance as separate measures fit their data better than did a unidimensional model. Moreover, most studies include self-report data from the adolescent’s perspective alone. Bartle-Haring and Gavazzi (1996) contend that although valuable, information from one perspective may not reflect the extent of agreement between family members or the extent to which families share a reality. Few studies in the past decade have used the perspectives of both parents and adolescents to understand adolescent development and adjustment in relation to family differentiation. Hock et al. (2001) and Peleg (2005) used perspectives of fathers, mothers and their adolescent children and found positive associations between higher levels of family differentiation and enhanced parental ability to provide a secure base for the separating adolescent as well as low social anxiety in adolescents. Cohen et al. (2003) also used data on tolerance for intimacy and individuality from fathers, mothers and adolescents and found that a high tolerance for individuality in the family is associated with less internalized stress in adolescents. However, the cross-sectional design of these studies does not permit evaluation of change in parentechild relationships over time. There were few longitudinal studies that used the perspectives of both the parents and the adolescents. Bartle-Haring, Brucker, and Hock (2002) collected data over two waves from adolescents and their parents and found that adolescents’ identity achievement is supported when mothers exhibit a high tolerance for autonomy while providing a secure base to the adolescent. A 25 year longitudinal study by Bell and Bell (2009) found that family connection during adolescence is associated with self-acceptance and positive relationships in midlife, and family individuation during adolescence is associated with personal autonomy at midlife. However, this study did not have parent data during Time 2 of data collection. To sum up, a review of the literature on family differentiation indicates that (a) connection and separateness have not been studied as individually significant yet complementary processes that impact parenteadolescent relationships as well as adolescent well-being, (b) how pubertal development impacts mutual connection and healthy separation in the parente adolescent relationship is yet to be clarified, (c) there is a paucity of longitudinal studies on family differentiation and adolescent development that also include the perspectives of the parent(s) and (d) the impact on contextual variables like family structure and SES on healthy separation is unclear. The Present Study This study aimed to investigate the relationship between a sense of connection in the parenteadolescent relationship and the healthy separation of the adolescent over four years. We were also interested in the impact of the adolescent’s pubertal maturation status and other contextual variables, on this relationship between connection and healthy separation. Our conceptual model can be seen in Fig. 1. Our hypotheses were: 1. A mutual sense of connection between parent(s) and the adolescent supports the healthy separation of the adolescent, whereby the adolescent feels safe to form a sense of self as separate from the family while remaining connected with its members. 2. The sense of connection in the parenteadolescent relationship and the adolescent’s perception of healthy separation increases with the pubertal maturation of the adolescent. Method Sample and Procedures We analyzed three waves (Waves 1, 3 and 4) of panel data from the Flourishing Families Project (FFP), a study of 500 families in the Greater Seattle Area and Utah County with a child between the ages of 10 and 13 at Time 1 of data collection (Day & Padilla-Walker, 2009). Data for the FFP study was collected using home-based assessment interviews during the first 8 months of 2007 for Time 1, and approximately 1 year later for Times 2, 3, and 4. Trained interviewers interviewed families in their homes, with each interview consisting of a one-hour video (not reported here) and a one-and-one half hour selfadministered questionnaire completed by the child, mother, and father. Families for the FFP study were primarily recruited using a purchased national telephone survey database (Polk Directories/InfoUSA). Families were selected from targeted census tracts that mirrored the socio-economic and racial
558
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
Family Structure
Child Sex
Income
HS Ethnicity
Intercept
Child Age
HS Slope Puberty Intercept
Mother-adolescent Connecon
Puberty Slope
Fig. 1. Conceptual model.
stratification of reports of local school districts in the Greater Seattle Area and Utah County, and all families with children between the ages of 10 and 13 were deemed eligible for the study. Two hundred thirty-eight families out of those identified agreed to participate and an additional 262 families were recruited through family referral so as to increase the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of the sample. The FFP sample consists of 340 two-parent families and 160 single parent families recruited at Time 1. Given our interest in the impact of contextual factors on change in healthy separation, including family structure, we elected to use data from only the adolescents and their mothers for this project. This enabled us to compare the relationships among the variables in twoparent and mother-headed households. We were unable to use data from Wave 2 since the FFP researchers omitted the Healthy Separation items at this time of data collection. We used data on pubertal maturation from Waves 2, 3 and 4 since these items were not used during Wave 1 of data collection. At Time 1, the 340 two parent families included the adolescent child (M age ¼ 11.27 years, SD ¼ 1.1, range ¼ 10e13), mother (M age ¼ 43.44, SD ¼ 5.54). Ninety-five percent of mothers reported being biological parents, 4% of mothers reported being adoptive parents, and 1% of mothers reported being step-parents. Seventy-nine percent of the participants were European American, 5% were African American, 5% were Asian American, 2% were Hispanic, and 9% indicated that they were “mixed/ biracial” or of another ethnicity. Fourteen percent of families reported an income less than $25,000 per year, 16% between $25,000 and $50,000 a year, and 70% more than $50,000 per year. In terms of education, 70% of the mothers reported having a bachelor’s degree or higher. Fifty-two percent of the mothers were employed outside of the home, 20.9% reported being selfemployed, and 19.5% reported being full-time homemakers. These mothers worked outside of the home on average for 28.41 h per week (SD ¼ 14.54). At Time 1, the 160 mother headed households included an adolescent child with a mean age of 11.47 (SD ¼ 1.06), and mothers who were on average 42.7 years of age (SD ¼ 8.2). These families were either European American (43.6%) or African American (29.5%) for the most part, with 14.1% reporting that they were multiethnic. The mothers reported some college education (30%) or a bachelor’s degree or more education (40%). The mean monthly income was $3300. Twenty-nine percent of the mothers reported that they had never been married, while 55% reported that they were separated or divorced, others reported they were widowed (4.5%), cohabiting (2.6%), or in a committed relationship but not cohabiting (3.8%). Fourteen percent reported also living with a grandparent. Sixty-four percent of the single mothers reported being employed outside of
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
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the home, 13.5% reported being self-employed, 7.1% reported being unemployed and looking for work, and 6.4% reported that they were full time home-makers. These mothers worked outside of the home on average 35.42 h (SD ¼ 14.07). The FFP data set includes data from the perspective of the child and his/her mother and father over a 4 year period. Attrition rates for the four waves of data collection are quite low (
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado
Connection to parents and healthy separation during adolescence: A longitudinal perspective Sujata Ponappa a, *, Suzanne Bartle-Haring a,1, Randal Day b, 2 a b
Department of Human Sciences, The Ohio State University, Campbell Hall, 1787 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA Brigham Young University, School of Family Life, Provo, UT 84602, USA
a b s t r a c t Keywords: Family differentiation Healthy separation Parenteadolescent connection Pubertal maturation
The purpose of our study was to investigate how connection between parents and children influences the child’s healthy separation during adolescence. We analyzed 3 waves of panel data from a study (Flourishing Families Project) of 500 families with children who were 10e13 years old at Time 1. This study includes information from the perspective of the child and his/her mother over a 4 year period for two-parent families and motherheaded households. Findings supported our hypothesis that a mutual sense of connection between mothers and adolescents supported the adolescent’s healthy separation over time, with differences due to sex of the child, ethnicity and income. Pubertal maturation was negatively associated with the sense of connection between adolescents and mothers in our sample of young adolescents. We discuss these findings in relation to previous literature. Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Adolescence is understood as a lifespan stage that involves a renegotiation of the sense of self as being separate from one’s parents and family members. This transition includes the possibility of increased conflict in the parentechild relationship, greater investment in peer relationships and emotional and cognitive fluctuations as a result of the physiological changes which accompany puberty (Short & Rosenthal, 2008; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). From a Bowen theory perspective (Bowen, 1978), the family system’s level of differentiation is related to how successfully an adolescent is able to negotiate this transition and is prepared to face the challenges of adulthood. Theoretically, individuals in well-differentiated families maintain emotional connection as well as separateness in their relationships while individuals in poorly-differentiated families experience extremes of relational connectedness or separateness due to low tolerance of one or the other in the family system (Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991). Adolescents raised in a well-differentiated family system are supported through the processes of individuation and identity formation because the system tolerates both the parents’ and adolescents’ need for connection and separateness in their relationship (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Bartle-Haring, 1997). Our hope was to better understand the relationship between connection and separateness in the parenteadolescent relationship. Our research question was- “does a sense of connection between parents and children support the child’s healthy separation during adolescence?” We use the term healthy separation to distinguish this process from the classical psychoanalytic view of adolescent individuation, which involves detachment or distancing from
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 614 292 7705. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S. Ponappa), [email protected] (S. Bartle-Haring), [email protected] (R. Day). 1 Tel.: þ1 614 688 3259. 2 Tel.: þ1 801 422 6415. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.04.005 0140-1971/Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
556
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
parents and a move away from connectedness or relatedness to parents (Beyers, Goossens, Vansant, & Moors, 2003; Blos, 1962). Healthy Separation and ParenteAdolescent Connection Researchers agree in general that individuation is a hallmark developmental task of adolescence. Bowen theorists would concur that healthy separation from one’s parents during adolescence does not require cutting off from family relationships but rather a reorganization of family patterns of interaction to accommodate the adolescent’s evolving identity (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Bartle-Haring, 1997; Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991). When a family system provides a balance of separateness and connectedness experiences, the adolescent is able to develop a sense of self while remaining connected with parents and other family members. However, both premature severance of parenteadolescent ties or excessive closeness in the parenteadolescent relationship are linked to risk factors such as early initiation into sexual activity, running away from home, inclusion of delinquent peers as friends, anxiety, depression and poor identity formation (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991). In the long term, unresolved issues with the family of origin during this transition have a negative impact on the individual’s differentiation of self and the ability to form and maintain intimate relationships in adulthood (Bowen, 1978). Thus, healthy separation implies the process whereby the adolescent negotiates a sense of self as separate from his or her family members while still remaining connected with them. This process paves the way for identity formation and differentiation of self in adult relationships (Bartle-Haring, 1997). A sense of emotional connection between family members, also known in the literature as ‘family cohesion’ (Olson, 2000), is positively associated with a sense of well-being and lower levels of parentechild conflict during early adolescence (Hamama & Arazi, 2012; McKinney & Renk, 2011). Family cohesion is also negatively associated with aggressive behavior (Hamama & Arazi, 2012) and early initiation of sexual activity (de Graaf, van de Schoot, Woertman, Hawk, & Meeus, 2012) during adolescence. We hypothesized that the relationship between family connection and adolescent well-being would be mediated by the adolescent’s sense of healthy separation from his or her parents. However, we were unable to find studies that explored the relationship between connection and healthy separation in the parenteadolescent relationship. For this study, our first hypothesis was that a mutual sense of connection in the parentechild relationship supports the adolescent’s healthy separation from his or her parents and other family members. Pubertal Maturation According to Steinberg and Morris (2001), puberty is associated with the development of a more egalitarian relationship between the adolescent and his/her parents. Conflict between parents and adolescents increases around the onset of puberty, however, positive affect and emotional closeness are not impacted by this seemingly increasing negativity (Holmbeck & Hill, 1991; Montemayor, Eberly, & Flannery, 1993; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Other studies suggest a negative relationship between the onset of puberty and the quality of family relationships. Puberty-related hormonal activity is linked with family problems during adolescence (Marceau, Dorn, & Susman, 2012) while being raised in environments of family conflict, divorce, negative parenting and absent fathers is associated with the earlier onset of menarche among females (Belsky et al. 2007; Short & Rosenthal, 2008; Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Given the mixed evidence from studies of pubertal development and family relationships, it seems that relationships between parents and adolescents are in a state of flux during early adolescence. This may be indicative of the family system’s need to reorganize patterns of interaction between parents and maturing adolescents, so as to provide the adolescent with a “safe” environment to separate in a healthy manner. We expect that both parents and adolescents may become more adept at balancing the connection and separateness in their relationship as the adolescent advances in age and pubertal progress. Our second hypothesis was that while the onset of puberty may impact connection and healthy separation negatively, progress in pubertal maturation would be associated with higher levels of mothereadolescent connection as well as healthy separation. Contextual Variables A review of adolescent development literature in the past decade resulted in very few studies that addressed family context (structure, income, SES, etc.) with regard to adolescent individuation or differentiation. Previous literature suggests that individuation occurs normatively in all family contexts (Baumrind, 1991; Freeman & Newland, 2002; Steinberg, 1990). Freeman & Newland (2002) compared adolescent perceptions of parental control (separation) and parental responsiveness (connection) among recently divorced or separated families, intact two-parent families and single-mother families. They found that family structure did not impact either dimension of adolescent development differentially. In terms of gender, adolescent boys scored higher on their separation measure than did adolescent girls, but there were no differences on their connection measure. Socio-economic status (SES) had a differential impact on connection such that families of a lower SES reported lower connection between parents and adolescents. The researchers also found that European American adolescents reported higher connection than did AsianeAmerican or Hispanic adolescents. Older adolescents also reported greater separation from parents (Freeman & Newland, 2002).
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
557
This study and others suggest that adolescents’ sense of healthy separation is not necessarily impacted by family structure, but other contextual variables may impact this developmental transition differentially. To investigate these findings further, we decided to include the adolescent’s gender and age, family ethnicity, family structure (two-parent or single-parent) and the combined household income as “control” variables in this study. Measurement of Differentiation in the Family System The influence of the family system’s level of differentiation on adolescent individuation has been well documented in the literature (Allison & Sabatelli, 1988; Sabatelli & Anderson, 1991) and several existing studies use the Differentiation in the Family System (DIFS) questionnaire (Anderson & Sabatelli, 1992) to capture this relationship. However, the items in this questionnaire combine the experiences of connectedness and separateness into a single measure and therefore, may not capture the uniqueness of each construct (Bartle-Haring, 1997). Cohen, Vasey, and Gavazzi (2003) found that a bidimensional model of family differentiation using the two theoretical elements of intimacy and individuality tolerance as separate measures fit their data better than did a unidimensional model. Moreover, most studies include self-report data from the adolescent’s perspective alone. Bartle-Haring and Gavazzi (1996) contend that although valuable, information from one perspective may not reflect the extent of agreement between family members or the extent to which families share a reality. Few studies in the past decade have used the perspectives of both parents and adolescents to understand adolescent development and adjustment in relation to family differentiation. Hock et al. (2001) and Peleg (2005) used perspectives of fathers, mothers and their adolescent children and found positive associations between higher levels of family differentiation and enhanced parental ability to provide a secure base for the separating adolescent as well as low social anxiety in adolescents. Cohen et al. (2003) also used data on tolerance for intimacy and individuality from fathers, mothers and adolescents and found that a high tolerance for individuality in the family is associated with less internalized stress in adolescents. However, the cross-sectional design of these studies does not permit evaluation of change in parentechild relationships over time. There were few longitudinal studies that used the perspectives of both the parents and the adolescents. Bartle-Haring, Brucker, and Hock (2002) collected data over two waves from adolescents and their parents and found that adolescents’ identity achievement is supported when mothers exhibit a high tolerance for autonomy while providing a secure base to the adolescent. A 25 year longitudinal study by Bell and Bell (2009) found that family connection during adolescence is associated with self-acceptance and positive relationships in midlife, and family individuation during adolescence is associated with personal autonomy at midlife. However, this study did not have parent data during Time 2 of data collection. To sum up, a review of the literature on family differentiation indicates that (a) connection and separateness have not been studied as individually significant yet complementary processes that impact parenteadolescent relationships as well as adolescent well-being, (b) how pubertal development impacts mutual connection and healthy separation in the parente adolescent relationship is yet to be clarified, (c) there is a paucity of longitudinal studies on family differentiation and adolescent development that also include the perspectives of the parent(s) and (d) the impact on contextual variables like family structure and SES on healthy separation is unclear. The Present Study This study aimed to investigate the relationship between a sense of connection in the parenteadolescent relationship and the healthy separation of the adolescent over four years. We were also interested in the impact of the adolescent’s pubertal maturation status and other contextual variables, on this relationship between connection and healthy separation. Our conceptual model can be seen in Fig. 1. Our hypotheses were: 1. A mutual sense of connection between parent(s) and the adolescent supports the healthy separation of the adolescent, whereby the adolescent feels safe to form a sense of self as separate from the family while remaining connected with its members. 2. The sense of connection in the parenteadolescent relationship and the adolescent’s perception of healthy separation increases with the pubertal maturation of the adolescent. Method Sample and Procedures We analyzed three waves (Waves 1, 3 and 4) of panel data from the Flourishing Families Project (FFP), a study of 500 families in the Greater Seattle Area and Utah County with a child between the ages of 10 and 13 at Time 1 of data collection (Day & Padilla-Walker, 2009). Data for the FFP study was collected using home-based assessment interviews during the first 8 months of 2007 for Time 1, and approximately 1 year later for Times 2, 3, and 4. Trained interviewers interviewed families in their homes, with each interview consisting of a one-hour video (not reported here) and a one-and-one half hour selfadministered questionnaire completed by the child, mother, and father. Families for the FFP study were primarily recruited using a purchased national telephone survey database (Polk Directories/InfoUSA). Families were selected from targeted census tracts that mirrored the socio-economic and racial
558
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
Family Structure
Child Sex
Income
HS Ethnicity
Intercept
Child Age
HS Slope Puberty Intercept
Mother-adolescent Connecon
Puberty Slope
Fig. 1. Conceptual model.
stratification of reports of local school districts in the Greater Seattle Area and Utah County, and all families with children between the ages of 10 and 13 were deemed eligible for the study. Two hundred thirty-eight families out of those identified agreed to participate and an additional 262 families were recruited through family referral so as to increase the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of the sample. The FFP sample consists of 340 two-parent families and 160 single parent families recruited at Time 1. Given our interest in the impact of contextual factors on change in healthy separation, including family structure, we elected to use data from only the adolescents and their mothers for this project. This enabled us to compare the relationships among the variables in twoparent and mother-headed households. We were unable to use data from Wave 2 since the FFP researchers omitted the Healthy Separation items at this time of data collection. We used data on pubertal maturation from Waves 2, 3 and 4 since these items were not used during Wave 1 of data collection. At Time 1, the 340 two parent families included the adolescent child (M age ¼ 11.27 years, SD ¼ 1.1, range ¼ 10e13), mother (M age ¼ 43.44, SD ¼ 5.54). Ninety-five percent of mothers reported being biological parents, 4% of mothers reported being adoptive parents, and 1% of mothers reported being step-parents. Seventy-nine percent of the participants were European American, 5% were African American, 5% were Asian American, 2% were Hispanic, and 9% indicated that they were “mixed/ biracial” or of another ethnicity. Fourteen percent of families reported an income less than $25,000 per year, 16% between $25,000 and $50,000 a year, and 70% more than $50,000 per year. In terms of education, 70% of the mothers reported having a bachelor’s degree or higher. Fifty-two percent of the mothers were employed outside of the home, 20.9% reported being selfemployed, and 19.5% reported being full-time homemakers. These mothers worked outside of the home on average for 28.41 h per week (SD ¼ 14.54). At Time 1, the 160 mother headed households included an adolescent child with a mean age of 11.47 (SD ¼ 1.06), and mothers who were on average 42.7 years of age (SD ¼ 8.2). These families were either European American (43.6%) or African American (29.5%) for the most part, with 14.1% reporting that they were multiethnic. The mothers reported some college education (30%) or a bachelor’s degree or more education (40%). The mean monthly income was $3300. Twenty-nine percent of the mothers reported that they had never been married, while 55% reported that they were separated or divorced, others reported they were widowed (4.5%), cohabiting (2.6%), or in a committed relationship but not cohabiting (3.8%). Fourteen percent reported also living with a grandparent. Sixty-four percent of the single mothers reported being employed outside of
S. Ponappa et al. / Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 555e566
559
the home, 13.5% reported being self-employed, 7.1% reported being unemployed and looking for work, and 6.4% reported that they were full time home-makers. These mothers worked outside of the home on average 35.42 h (SD ¼ 14.07). The FFP data set includes data from the perspective of the child and his/her mother and father over a 4 year period. Attrition rates for the four waves of data collection are quite low (
