Emotional Neglect from Parents Inability to Psychologically Separate Parental Emotional Neglect and Youths’ Pyschosocial Adjustment: Psychological Separation and Friendships as Protective Factors Amanda J. LeTard, David E. Szwedo & Joseph P. Allen University of Virginia Amanda J. LeTard ajl3c@virginia.edu This study was made possible by funding from the National Institute of Mental Health awarded to Joseph P. Allen, Principal Investigator (Grant# R01-MH58066) Copies available online at: www.teenresearch.org Introduction Psychological Separation – (Mean Age: 21) Adolescents completed a 25 item “Conflictual Independence” scale from the Psychological Separation Inventory (Hoffman, 1984) which measures freedom from excessive anger, guilt, resentment, and mistrust of parents. Sample Items “I blame my father for many of the problems I have” “I feel that I have obligations to my father that I wish I didn’t have” “I hate it when my father makes suggestions about what I do” “I wish I could trust my father more” Romantic Appeal – (Mean Age: 22) Adolescents filled out the Romantic Appeal subscale of the Self Perception Profile for adolescents (Harter, 1988). Sample Item: “Some people feel that if they “like” someone (in a romantic way), that person will like them back” Self-Worth – (Mean Age: 22) Adolescents filled out the self-worth subscale of the Self Perception Profile for adolescents (Harter, 1988). Sample Item: “Some people are well-liked by others” Social Acceptance – (Mean Age: 22) Adolescents filled out the Social Acceptance subscale of the Self Perception Profile for adolescents (Harter, 1988). Sample Item: “Some people are very happy being the way they are” Youths’ experiences of emotional neglect from parents is linked with later negative psychosocial outcomes (Wilson et al, 2006). Poor psychological separation from negative feelings toward parents is associated with negative social-emotional adjustment (Schwartz & Buboltz, 2004). Successfully psychologically separating from parents is part of healthy development in adolescents (Blos,1967) Friendships high in support contribute to psychosocial adjustment (Fonzi & Tani, 2000) Hypotheses Emotional neglect by parents at age 13 would be associated with lower feelings of self-worth and social and romantic acceptance at age 21. The relationship between emotional neglect and lower feelings of self-worth, social acceptance and romantic acceptance would be mediated by youths’ inability to psychologically separate from negative feelings toward their parents. Youth who reported having highly supportive best friendships would be more likely to develop the capacity to psychologically separate from these negative feelings. Method Results Discussion Participants Full sample: N = 184 Gender Race/ethnicity Income 85 males 107 Caucasian Median = $40,000 - $59,000 99 females 53 African American 24 Mixed/Other Measures Emotional Neglect From Parents – (Mean Teen Age: 13) Assessed using the five item Emotional Neglect scale from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein et al, 1994). Sample Items: “There was someone in my family who helped me fell that I was very important or special” “I felt loved” “People in my family looked out for each other” “My family was a source of strength and support” Support from Best Friend – (Mean Age: 19) Adolescents completed the Friendship Quality Questionnaire (Parker et al, 1993), a 40 item self-report questionnaire of friendship adjustment and peer acceptance. “She cares about my feelings” “We make each other feel important and special” “She gives me advice with figuring things out” “We tell each other our secrets” Results indicated a significant positive relationship between parents’ emotional neglect and youths’ inability to psychologically separate from negative feelings toward their parents at age 20. Parents’ emotional neglect was negatively related to youths’ perceptions of their self-worth, social acceptance, and romantic appeal at age 21. The inability to psychologically separate from negative feelings toward parents partially mediated the relationships between parents’ emotional neglect and feelings of self-worth and romantic appeal. Youth who perceived high support from their best friend were more likely to successfully separate psychologically from negative feelings toward their parents when also reporting higher levels of emotional neglect from their parents. These results provide additional evidence for the negative long-term effects of perceived emotional neglect from parents on youths’ psychosocial adjustment. More importantly, however, they suggest that these effects may potentially be tempered by engaging in supportive peer relationships which may help youth to psychologically separate from negative feelings toward their parents, possibly leading to more positive outcomes. Romantic Appeal Self-Worth Social Acceptance Emotional Neglect from Parents .23** -.20* -.22** -.17+ Age 13 Age 20 Age 21 Inability to Psychologically Separate Figure 1. Results of regression analyses illustrating the mediating effect of the inability to psychologically separate from parents on the relationship between emotional neglect from parents and future psychological adjustment.