Troubled Ruminations About Parents: Conceptualization and Validation With Emerging Adults

Just as Erikson (1950, 1968) was concerned about adolescence and the lengthening of the adolescent period in his time, so too are many theorists and researchers today concerned about a newly titled and likewise lengthening stage of the life cycle--emerging adulthood (Arnett, 1998, 2000). Emerging adulthood is conceptualized as a transitional stage between adolescence and adulthood. This new stage, in large measure, is a result of the changes in social and economic conditions that began during the latter part of the 20th century (see Cote, 2000, for an extended discussion). The most salient issues in emerging adulthood involve bridging the experiences with one's parents in childhood and adolescence with the consequences of these experiences in adulthood. This bridging is important as emerging adults prepare for the full independence and critical tasks of adulthood, including gainful employment, financial independence, committed partnership, and parenthood (Aquilino, 2006). Emerging adulthood provides young people with opportunities both to reflect on their family experiences and to look forward as they develop a coherent sense of self and plans for the future (Arnett & Tanner, 2006; Schwartz, Cote, & Arnett, 2005). Attachments to Parents and Psychosocial Functioning in Adulthood Researchers have found that experiences with parents in childhood and adolescence are associated with psychosocial functioning, self-perceptions, and relationship quality in emerging adulthood and beyond (Riggio, 2004; Simpson, Collins, Tran, & Haydon, 2007). Research grounded in attachment theory emphasizes that early experiences with parents affect later functioning through the continuity of internalizations of the parent-child relationship, as manifested in internal working models (e.g., Carlson, Sroufe, & Egeland, 2004; Weinfield, Whaley, & Egeland, 2004). Attachment theory holds that an internal working model of the parent-child relationship develops as a consequence of early and continuing interactions with parents and that these models shape the course of psychosocial functioning in areas such as self-esteem (Gomez & McLaren, 2007), anxiety (van Brakel, Muds, Bogels, & Thomassen, 2006), and depression (Kenny & Sirin, 2006). In this article, we introduce a new attachment-based construct that we label troubled ruminations about parents. Our conceptualization of these troubled ruminations is that of a negative internal working model of parent--child relationships. Drawing from the attachment literature, we contend that troubled ruminations about parents may interfere with healthy adult adjustment, relationships, and quality of life--and, indeed, perhaps with the ability or willingness to take on full adult roles at all. When troubled ruminations about parents are present, they may signal the need for counselors to focus on cognitively, affectively, and behaviorally restructuring the client's relationship with her or his parents, as well as on exploring the client's unresolved conflicts with one or both parents. Troubled Ruminations About Parents: Conceptual Foundations Our conceptualization of troubled ruminations about parents draws on attachment theory (Main, 1996), parental acceptance--rejection theory (Rohner, 2004), as well as other theoretical perspectives. In our view, troubled ruminations about parents result from a confluence of a negative attachment history, a feeling of having been rejected by the parent (Rohner, Khaleque, & Cournoyer, 2005), a sense of regret about not having enjoyed a better relationship (or more time) with the parent (Fabricius & Hall, 2000), and a fundamental sense of dissatisfaction with one's relationship with the parent (Finley & Schwartz, 2007). Although these concepts have been in the literature for some time, it may be helpful to conceptualize them together as a negative internal working model that more fully connects with later psychosocial and relational functioning in emerging adulthood. …