Emotional Autonomy And Individuation In Adolescence

Autonomy is a multifaceted consruct and has usually been measured in terms of emotional and behavioural autonomy. Autonomy refers to an individual’s ability to think, feel and make decisions and to act on her or his own. Crittenden (1990) has defined autonomy as “capacity for taking responsibility for one’s own behaviour, making decisions regarding one’s own life and maintaining supportive relationships. Autonomy is a crucial developmental task of adolescence, mainly because it is closely linked to individuation and identity formation, which are indispensible as an adolescent gradually transforms into an adult. Zimmer-Gembeck and Collins (2003) emphasised autonomy as the freedom to make choices, to pursue goals, and to control one’s own behaviour.

Definition

Emotional autonomy is defined as the process, through which “adolescents relinquish childish dependencies on their parents and change their conceptions of their parents”. Emotional autonomy involves increase in adolescents’ personal sense of his or her independence, especially in relation to caretakers and parental figures. Behavioral autonomy refers to the degree to which adolescents show responsibility for their actions and regulate their own behavior and attitudes. On the other hand, social-cognitive autonomy refers to adolescents’ abilities to discuss and reconcile conflicts, express themselves, and appreciate differing perspectives from their own.

Steinberg and Silverberg (1986) further theorized that individuation required emotional autonomy from parents. The renouncing of emotional dependence on parents or emotional detachment was considered necessary.

Emotional autonomy during adolescence

Eisenberg (1969) stated that adolescence may be defined as a critical period of human development manifested at the biological, psychological and social levels of interaction, but marking the end of childhood and setting the foundations of maturity. One of the major developmental tasks of adolescence is to achieve emotional independence from parents and other adults. During adolescence, the task of development of autonomy is inevitable. It implies that the adolescents are capable of managing themselves on their own without the constant support from their parents, making their own decisions and solving their own problems. Blos (1979) conceptualized the process of individuation as the construction of one’s sense of self as competent and autonomous, both in terms of self-determination and separateness from one’s parents. That is self reliance was believed to replace dependence on parents. The development of emotional autonomy is not primarily an intra-physical transformation in which the adolescent comes to see him or herself as more grown up, but an interpersonal transformation, in which patterns of interaction between the adolescent and parents shift through a process of mutual (if not always willing) renegotiation. At the end of this transformation process are three interrelated outcomes: a changed adolescent, who now views him- or herself in a different light; a changed parent, who now views his or her child (and perhaps him-or herself) in a different light; and a changed parent-child relationship, which is likely to be somewhat more egalitarian. Researchers of adolescent psychology mutually disagree about the link between emotional autonomy and detachment from parental ties. In one camp, there are several psychoanalytic theorists, who have proposed that the development of healthy autonomy is encouraged through the adolescent detachment from family ties, a process that involves both reductions in emotional dependency and the relinquishing of early childhood concepts of parents as omnipotent protectors. These writers have argued that some detachment from parental ties is necessary for the adolescent to develop a healthy sense of self. However, Ryan and Lynch (1989) challenged the findings given by Lamborn and Steinberg (1993) and concluded that the more emotional autonomy teenagers or young adults express, the less connected or secure they feel within family, the less they experience their parents as conveying love and understanding and the less they report willing to draw upon parental resources.

Factors that affect Emotional Autonomy and Individuation

Emotional autonomy is a relational construct and therefore it is difficult to assess its significance and sequelae without making reference to the object and the persons from whom the adolescent is becoming autonomous. Adaptiveness to emotional autonomy is affected by various moderating and mediating variables. A moderator variable is one that affects a relation between two variables. Moderators interact with an antecedent variable in such a way as to have an impact upon the level of the consequent variable. A mediator variable, unlike a moderator, falls in the causal pathway between two variables, such that “the independent variable causes the mediator which then causes the outcome”.

Various personal as well as contextual attributes serve as moderating and mediating variables in the development of emotional autonomy. Parents that provide both regulation and opportunities for psychological autonomy provide a structure in which a growing child can acquire actual competencies, a sense of personal efficacy for acquiring new competencies, and a sense of personal autonomy. Parents that promote healthy connectedness ensure the development of relatedness, as well as providing an emotional climate in which children will feel comfortable exploring their world to acquire necessary competencies. In essence, the outcomes of the process of individuation depend in large measure on the nature of the parent-adolescent relationship undergoing transformation. LoCoco et al (2000) reported that a high emotional autonomy would be a consequence of an unsatisfactory family relationship, characterized by low support and confidence in the bond established with their parents and therefore related to a whole set of indexes resulting from poor adolescent adjustment and therefore negative connection between family relationships quality and emotional autonomy. However, Parra and Oliva (2009) were of the opinion that adolescent boys and girls need to keep positive relationships with others, especially with their mothers and fathers while developing themselves as autonomous individuals. Autonomy is seen as a self-reliance agency that develops optimally in the context of supportive relationships with parents. The adolescent’s developmental task is therefore both to exercise his or her self-reliance and to maintain the relations with parents as a source of support and guidance. Ryan and Lynch (1989) investigated the relation between self-reliance in school and dependence on parents on 606 early adolescents. They found that adolescents who were more willing to rely on parents were also more autonomous in school.

Theory and research has indicated that as children become less dependent on their parents, cognitively more advanced, and develop a greater need for collaborative relationships, they increasingly turn to their friends for emotional support and experience more intimacy in their friendships. Peers provide a more realistic model for developing skills and attitudes and help adolescents form attitudes and values. Peer group also provides a medium to test their values derived from their parents. Peers offer emotional security in terms of similarity in thoughts, problems and ideas. Banerjee et al (2011) revealed bidirectional relationships between social understanding and peer relations during childhood. Parents directly structure and select their children’s peer contacts, and parents indirectly influence norms and beliefs about appropriate social behavior and the relationship models based on attachment experiences. Changes, however, may occur during adolescence as young people become increasingly dependent on their friends and less dependent on their parents for emotional support. There is also an increased awareness of the role of friendship in personal growth and social development as well as a more realistic outlook towards friendship as Cook et al (2007) found that peer attributes in the school domain affect individual performance outcomes, while peer attribute in social behaviour affect individual social behaviour.

Conclusion

Individuation of adolescents implies that they can manage themselves on their own without the constant support from their parents, making their own decisions and solving their own problems. Therefore, a warm, supportive adolescent-parent relationship provides an ideal context in which to develop autonomy. Indeed, a temporary period of disengagement from parental ties, accompanied by an overzealous orientation towards the peer group, is seen as a normal and healthy part of ego development during the early adolescent period. More specifically, friendship patterns characterized by support and sharing of thoughts, feelings, and behavior represent a positive social context where adolescents can strengthen their self-confidence, expectations for the future, and social competence. Friendship seems to be the relational experience that, through support and social comparison, provides adolescents with an opportunity to learn new social definitions, to build and/or strengthen their social capabilities, and to experiment with their own identity and different social roles and therefore is a significant variable that mediates emotional autonomy of an adolescent.