Psychology

"Is intimacy contagious?” Intimate safety with parents as a key to emerging adults’ social connectedness

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Objectives: We examined whether emerging adults' sense of intimate safety with their parents and their adult attachment style would predict emerging adults' social connectedness. Additionally, we investigated whether their social connectedness would mediate the association between emerging adults' sense of intimate safety with their parents and their rumination and anger expression.

Background: Social connectedness is essential to the psychological and relational health of emerging adults, particularly during the renegotiation of their relationships with their parents.

Method: Two hundred sixteen emerging adults (80% female; 61% non-Hispanic White) completed a survey of close relationship variables.

Results: The results suggest that emerging adults' adult attachment style mediated the relationship between emerging adults' intimate safety with their parents and social connectedness. Additionally, social connectedness mediated the relationship between emerging adults' intimate safety with their parents and their rumination and anger expression.

Conclusion: This research highlights the importance of emerging adults' sense of safety to be their authentic and vulnerable selves in parent–child relationships on emerging adults' development of social connectedness and their mental and relational health. © 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

Publication Title

Family Relations

Publication Date

12-1-2022

First Page

1

Last Page

17

ISSN

1741-3729

DOI

10.1111/fare.12803

Keywords

emerging adults, intimate safety, parent–child relationship, recentering, social connectedness

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