Perceived Overprotective Parenting and Identity Synthesis and Confusion in Georgian Emerging Adults: The Intervening Role of Goal Engagement and Disengagement

Abstract

Overprotective parenting refers to parents’ provision of developmentally inappropriate protection and is associated with dysfunctional developmental processes and outcomes in adolescence and emerging adulthood. In the present study, we examined whether perceived overprotective parenting is potentially associated with identity synthesis and identity confusion, as the development of a coherent sense of identity is conceived as one of the primary goals of adolescence and emerging adulthood. Thereby, we also tested whether developmentally regulatory strategies of goal engagement and disengagement are intervening variables in the association between overprotective parenting and identity. Participants were 318 Georgian emerging adults (M_age = 23.41, 58% female). Path analyses indicated that perceived overprotective parenting was directly associated with less identity synthesis and more identity confusion. It was found that overprotection was unrelated to goal engagement, but was associated with more goal disengagement. Goal engagement, in turn, was positively associated with identity synthesis and negatively associated with identity confusion, whereas goal disengagement was positively associated with identity confusion. These results suggest that overprotective parenting creates a family context that is negatively associated with the successful resolution of the identity formation task. Goal disengagement, a relatively passive, avoidant developmental strategy, particularly played an intervening role in this association between overprotection and identity confusion.