"Why do they have to grow up so fast?" Parental separation anxiety and emerging adults' pathology of separation-individuation.

This study examined associations between parental separation anxiety, controlling parenting, and difficulties in the separation-individuation process, as manifested in separation-individuation pathology. In a sample of emerging adults involved in the process of home leaving (N = 232) and their parents, it was found that parental separation anxiety is positively related to separation-individuation pathology in emerging adults. Dependency-oriented controlling parenting served as an intervening variable in the relationship between parents' feelings of separation anxiety and pathology of the separation-individuation process in emerging adults. These associations were not moderated by emerging adults' residential status (i.e., living with parents or (semi-)independently), suggesting that parental characteristics and behaviors remain important antecedents of separation-individuation pathology even when one no longer lives in the parental household.