Contributions of Psychological Separation and Parental Attachment to the Career Development Process

The degree to which psychological separation and parental attachment are related to the career decision-making and commitment to career choices processes of college students was examined. In Study 1, the hypothesis was tested that young adults who report difficulties in psychological separation would evidence career indecision and deficits in career decision-making self-efficacy; this hypothesis was not supported. In Study 2, the hypothesis was tested that perceptions of psychological separation and parental attachment would be positively related to progress in the commitment process and inversely related to the tendency to foreclose. A canonical analysis yielded significant results that were generally consistent with theoretical expectations. For women, attachment to and conflictual independence from both parents were positively related to progress in the commitment process and negatively related to the tendency to foreclose. For men, attachment to, attitudinal dependence on, and conflictual independence from their fathers were predictive of progress in the commitment process.