Psychological Effects Of The Parent/Child Relationship On One’s Adult Identity

Introduction

The early stage of life has a great impact on the further socialization of an individual; the family relationship has a great influence on the personality of a child. Parents play a vital role in the physical and mental development of children. In human development, the experience of kids within their family, siblings, and peer groups has a greater impact and has occupied a central position in current research. The cognitive and behavioural process evolved from family life, and a strong family system can provide better and mentally strong adults to society. Parents are providing a framework for their children the navigating and interpret the social world. The adulthood self-identity is the outcome of the parent-child relationship and the way they were brought up. The parenthood, relationship, family, and lifestyle can shape our identity. Our interactions with others reflect our childhood and our family background; they can also shape our sense of selfness. For instance, if parents praise their child’s ability to art, the child may come to believe that he or she is a good artist, and it can nurture this ability of the child.

My thesis statement

This study will examine the impacts of child-parent relationships on the psychological well-being of a person and the sense of one’s selfness. This study will identify the psychological advantages of close parent-child relationships for children who have reached adulthood.

II. Literature Review

Past research has identified many factors and outcomes of the parent-child relationship. Throughout the development stage of childhood, parents play a vital role in the cognitive, behavioural, and emotional development of their children. The self-esteem and identity of a child in their adulthood are based on their family structure. Research has suggested that a dysfunctional family’s children are reluctant to socialize and have lower self-esteem.

Primary Source 1:

Parke (2016) argued in his book Family-Peer Relationships that parenting styles have a great positive influence on the quality of the relationship a child makes with peers. In this book, the impacts of parents on the mental development of kids are discussed thoroughly.

The parenting style of rearing their children provides a model for affiliative behaviors and foster expectations regarding the relations to their peer group. A warm parental response can influence their kid’s ability to care for and trust others, such as their peers. This book covers a vast range of psychological and social outcomes of rearing children and parenting styles, which can influence their self-esteem and their various psychological behaviours.

It is a primary source that will help me to develop my thesis because this book has covered many useful topics related to my study. I will further develop these findings in different geographic and demographic populations.

III. Secondary Sources

Here, we will discuss previous studies regarding the psychological impact of parent-child relationships on one’s adult identity and their approach to family in their adulthood.

Secondary Source 1:

According to Grundman (2013), the parenting style has a positive influence on self-regulation, behaviour, and identity development during the adulthood of children. Furthermore, his study found that the autonomy support style of parenting results in developing positive identity development, intrinsic motivation, and positive emotional well-being in early emerging adulthood.

Grundman found in his study that conditional positive regard foresees negative behavioural outcomes in the personality of emerging adults. This study found that the conditional parenting style has negative outcomes on the behaviour of children, while parental autonomy support has positive outcomes.

In this article, the researcher has identified the emotional outcomes of emergent adults as the function of child-care behaviour. This research is relevant to my study as it has examined the parenting style and its outcomes on the emotional development of children to know about themselves, their self-esteem and self-regulation. This study has covered many aspects of the emerging adult’s behaviour, which are linked with the parenting style.

Secondary Source 2:

According to Shkurko (2014), the attitudes and behaviour of adults are broadly influenced by parental style. During adolescence, children spend more time with their peers, and more parenting distance has been examined. Socialization in the emerging adulthood stage is a move into the world where there is less control of parents because, in adolescence, children are pushed for more autonomy. So, the role of parents in this stage is vital to control the risk of negative impacts on their peers.

According to Shkurko (2014), the parent-children relationship declines, and emerging adults seek to reestablish a family relationship. It also poses a risk of deviant behaviours, so parents need to continue their effects on peer relationships either directly or indirectly.

This research revealed an important social and psychological issue of socialization of adolescents with their peers, and it holds both positive and negative outcomes. For their mental growth and maturity, it is an important aspect I am keenly interested in this issue to consider it for my thesis.

Secondary Source 3:

Van Harmelen et al. (2016) examined the positive impact of family support on the mental health of adolescents. They argued that early life stress has adverse effects on the mental fitness of younger adults.

This study found that social support at a young age is negatively related to the depressing indications in which girls and boys are exposed to primary life stress. The positive family environment can benefit the helpless youth that had faced child family hardships or the primary school bullyings.

Young adults also need support from their family and friends to develop positive self-esteem in early adulthood. This study has examined that children who faced early school bullying need more support from their parents to develop positive behaviour in their adulthood.

IV. Conclusion

Child parent relationship has a great impact on the personality of an individual. In the early stage, there is a strong bond between children and parents, and they learn behavior from their parents. However, in adulthood, this bond weakens and they become socialize with their peers, at this stage adults are remaking relationships with their parents. The involvement of parents in the personality development of children is essential, and a strong family system has a positive impact on their behaviour to make relationships with others and actualize their self-esteem.

Works Cited

Grundman, J. K. “Does Parenting Style Predict Identity and Emotional Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood.” From< URL https://gustavus. edu/psychology/documents/JennyGrundman. pdf>(Retrieved February 7, 2014) (2013).

Parke, Ross D., and Gary W. Ladd, eds. Family-peer relationships: Modes of linkage. Routledge, 2016.

Shkurko, Tatyana A. “Socio-psychological needs of parents and characteristics of relationships in the family.” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 146 (2014): 477-482.

van Harmelen, Anne-Laura, et al. “Friendships and family support reduce subsequent depressive symptoms in at-risk adolescents.” PloS one 11.5 (2016): e0153715.