Emotional separation, parental trust, and psychosocial adjustment in preadolescence and early adolescence

Emotional separation and parental trust are two fundamental components of parent-adolescent relationships across different cultural contexts. Previous research showed that emotional separation hindered adolescents' psychosocial adjustment, while parental trust benefited it. However, research on preadolescence is lacking. Preadolescence is a crucial period, as theories and findings suggest that too early autonomy around puberty had negative consequences for psychosocial adjustment. This study focused on preadolescence and early adolescence and tested two hypotheses: that emotional separation would be negatively, and parental trust would be positively, associated with psychosocial adjustment, and that this pattern of associations would be more salient in preadolescence than in early adolescence.

Participants were 856 preadolescent elementary schoolers (49.6% girls; age range 9-12 years, M_age = 10.79, SD = 0.92) and 518 early adolescent junior high schoolers (47.7% girls, age range 12-15 years; M_age = 13.56, SD = 0.98) in Japan, who completed measures of emotional separation, parental trust, and psychosocial adjustment (industry, school adaptation, and daily life behaviors).

Emotional separation was negatively associated with reviewing learning contents and doing homework. Parental trust was positively associated with industry, school adaptation, waking up at regular times, and observing rules at school. These relationships did not differ between age groups.

This study highlights that emotional separation has a negative relationship, and parental trust has a positive relationship, with psychosocial adjustment throughout preadolescence and adolescence.