Ambivalence in child-parent relations and its correlates with perceived parenting in adolescence and emerging adulthood: Direct and indirect measurement.

The concept of intergenerational ambivalence describes dynamics of simultaneous attraction and repulsion in families. Although previous research has mostly concentrated on experiences of ambivalence in adult child-parent relations, adolescence and emerging adulthood are also phases where the concept may be fruitfully applied to describe parent-child relations. Both periods may give rise to ambivalences and tensions in family relations since they comprise important transformations in child-parent relations that entail many developmental tasks, such as the balancing of relatedness and autonomy in the dual process of individuation. The present study focused these earlier transitional phases in child-parent relations. The general aim was to examine which factors in the child-parent relationship foster (or prevent) the adolescents’ experience of ambivalences in the individuation process; a special emphasis will be put here on the role of perceived parenting.

A sample of N = 233 participants between the age of 14 and 25 (M = 19.00, SD = 2.69) living in Luxembourg reported on their relations towards their mothers and their fathers. The standardized questionnaire measured perceived parenting on three dimensions (maternal resp. paternal support, behavioural control, and psychological control); further, ambivalence towards mothers and fathers was assessed a) directly by use of a newly developed questionnaire including contradictory emotional, motivational, and behavioural tendencies, and b) indirectly by a pattern approach, combining positive and negative emotions towards both parents.

Results showed that the experience of intergenerational ambivalence was positively related to parental psychological control both using direct and indirect measurements of ambivalence. Ambivalence was also positively related to paternal behavioural control; a relation with maternal behavioural control was found only for older participants. Results are discussed with respect to developmental phase and roles of mothers and fathers in the regulation of ambivalence within the individuation process.