Development of autonomy and parent-child interaction in late adolescence.

Attachment and Autonomy During Adolescence

“…With regard to adolescent development, it becomes increasingly important for the exploratory system to be highly activated and fully developed; this activation corresponds to a decrease in the day -to -day reliance on attachment figures for comfort and support (Allen & Land, 1999 ;Allen, in press). Interestingly, it was Bowlby who first suggested that in adolescence it was the combination of autonomy -relatedness that was most linked to optimal outcomes in the parent -child relationship (Murphey, Silber, Coelho, Hamburg, & Greenberg, 1963 ). Increased autonomous exploration (while utilizing parents as a secure base) allows adolescents to focus on the remaining tasks of social and emotional development: forming relationships with peers and romantic partners and regulating their own behavior and affective states.…”

Family Transactions in the Etiology of Dropping out of College

“…23 The family can let the student go and moreover is competent to supply him with the instrumental techniques for survival in the outside world. In the family of the schizophrenic, the pressures on the child to participate in a tenuous homeostatic balance are so frighteningly immense and basically irrational that emotional disturbance appears within the family group and may in-FAMILY TRANSACTIONS IN THE ETIOLOGY OF DROPPING OUT OF COLLEGE deed be vital to the maintenance of the sanity of the other family members.…”

Parental Perceptions of Separating Children

“…Murphey et al (18) have reported on expectations in parents of successfully separating college students. These parents, wrote the authors, "regarded the separation and the college experience as a normal expectation and a necessary experience for growth.…”