Family System Dynamics, the Individuation Process, and Psychosocial Development

Measures of family system patterns of interaction and the individuation process were examined as mediators of psychosocial development in a sample of college students. Included is an initial exploration into the construction and development of self-report, paper-and-pencil instruments designed to measure the two exceedingly complex constructs of differentiation and individuation. Indicators of family conflict, parental intrusiveness, and psychological interconnectedness were found to be significant predictors of psychosocial maturity, supporting the theoretical expectation that distance regulation patterns indicative of well differentiated families and age-appropriate manifestations of the individuation process would be independently and interactively related to psychosocial adaptation. Also, the exploration of gender-related differences revealed that males were significantly more financially and psychologically independent from family members than were females but did not differ on any of the other family system and individual variables explored.