Associations between perceived parental psychological control and internalizing difficulties in emerging adulthood: The role of identity

Our study investigated the associations among two expressions of perceived parental psychological control (dependency-oriented parental control [DPC] and achievement-oriented parental control [APC]), identity, and internalizing difficulties among college-attending emerging adults. In particular, our aim was to examine the potential role of identity in the pathways linking both DPC and APC to internalizing difficulties. Our participants included 495 Italian college students (49% males), between 19 and 28 years of age (mean = 23.37 years, standard deviation = 2.35). Our findings highlighted the existence of associations between APC, identity, and internalizing difficulties. Specifically, APC was negatively related to identity that, in turn, was related to both anxiety and depressive symptoms. Moreover, APC showed direct effects on internalizing difficulties, whereas DPC had neither direct nor indirect effects on the outcomes. Overall, our findings highlighted the importance of examining the different contribution of the two forms of parental psychological control to emerging adults’ internalizing difficulties via identity.