The role of primary emotions in separation-individuation during emerging adulthood

Glavač, Timotej (author), Zupančič, Maja (author)

Introduction: Separation-individuation (S-I) in relation to parents is a core developmental process that unfolds during infancy/toddlerhood (primary S-I) and adolescence/ emerging adulthood (second S-I) and relates to psychological functioning across several domains. While the outcomes of this process are most commonly explained by the quality of parent–child relationships, the role of child temperament/personality is rarely considered. Methods: We examined the role of emerging adults’ primary emotions on five aspects of S-I in relation to mother and father, as captured by the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults—Short. The sample consisted of 446 emerging adults (58.7% females, 41.3% males), predominantly students. Results: Hierarchical linear regressions suggested a significant contribution of the six primary emotions (SEEKING, FEAR, ANGER, SADNESS, CARE, and PLAY) across the aspects of S-I (seeking parental support, connectedness, perceived parental intrusiveness, self-reliance, and fear of disappointing the parent), over and beyond the relevant demographic variables (age, gender, living arrangement). Differential associations showed consistent links of SEEKING with self-reliance, of CARE and low SADNESS with both support seeking and connectedness, of SADNESS with perceived parental intrusiveness, and of FEAR with fear of disappointing parents. A few inconsistent relations were likely due to somewhat different roles of mothers and fathers in the caregiving context. Discussion: Overall, our results provide new evidence supporting the idea that individual differences in primary emotional systems may play a distinct and meaningful role in affecting aspects of the S-I process in emerging adulthood.

• Language: English
• Keywords: affective neuroscience theory, emerging adults, parent–child relations, primary emotions, separation-individuation
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 17, art. 1675495
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-181877
• UDC: 159.922.8
• ISSN on article: 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1675495
• COBISS.SI-ID: 275599363
• Publication date in RUL: 17.04.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Frontiers in psychology
• Shortened title: Front. psychol.
• Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
• ISSN: 1664-1078
• COBISS.SI-ID: 519967513

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: afektivna nevroznanost, prehod v odraslost, odnos med starši in otroci, čustva, osamosvajanje

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0062
• Name: Uporabna razvojna psihologija