This study brings together two main theoretical traditions in order to better understand how parent–child relationships are influenced by the societal conditions around the family. The concept of the ecological niche has been used to describe the way in which East German families dealt with government institutions during communism, while we used the concept of individuation to describe relationships between parents and their children. Using a model predicting individuation within a family we demonstrate that the type of niche predicts individuation even after intrafamilial variables, such as the level of parent–child conflict, agency and time of the interaction have been controlled for. By employing hierarchical log-linear techniques to analyze narrative interviews of parents and their adult children from 34 families, we found that families who were more balanced in their interactions with communist government institutions were also more balanced in their parent–child individuations.
Antonucci, T.C. (1989). Understanding adult social relationships. In K. Kreppner & R.M. Lerner (Eds.), Family systems and life span development (pp. 303-315). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
2.
Belsky, J., & Pensky, E. (1988). Developmental history, personality, and family relationships: Toward an emergent family system. In R. Hinde & J. Stevenson-Hinde (Eds.), Relationships within families (pp. 193-217), Oxford, UK: University of Oxford Press.
3.
Bengtson, V.L., & Kuypers, J.A. (1971). Generational difference and the developmental stake. Aging and Human Development, 2, 249-260.
4.
Block, J.H. (1983). Differential premises arising from differential socialization of the sexes: Some conjectures. Child Development , 54, 1335-1354.
5.
Blos, P. (1967). The second individuation of adolescence. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 22, 162-186.
6.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Experiments by nature and design, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
7.
Gaus, G. (1976). Wo Deutschland liegt [There is Germany]. Gütersloh, Germany: Hoffmann & Campe.
8.
Giarusso, R., Stallings, M., & Bengtson, V.L. (1995). The "intergenerational stake" hypothesis revisited: Parent-child differences in perceptions of relationships 20 years later. In V.L. Bengtson, K.W. Schaie & L.M. Burton (Eds.), Adult intergenerational relationships (pp. 227-263). New York: Springer.
9.
Grotevant, H.D., & Cooper, C.R. (1986). Individuation in family relationships. Human Development, 29, 82-100.
10.
Ihle, W., Esser, G., Schmidt, M.H., Blanz, B., Reis, O., & Meyer-Probst, B. (1999). Risk conditions and developmental patterns of mental disorders from childhood to early adulthood - Results from two longitudinal studies in Rostock and Mannheim. In R.K. Silbereisen & A. von Eye (Eds.), Growing up in times of social change (pp. 131-150). Berlin: de Gruyter.
11.
Ihle, W., Esser, G., Schmidt, M.H., Blanz, B., Reis, O., & Meyer-Probst, B. (2001). Prevalence, course, and risk factors for mental disorders in young adults and their parents in East and West Germany. American Behavioral Scientist, 44, 1918-1936.
12.
Kağıtçıbaşı, C. (1996). The autonomous-relational self: A new synthesis. European Psychologist, 1, 180-186.
13.
Kağıtçıbaşı, C. (2003). Autonomy, embeddedness and adaptability in immigration contexts. Human Development , 46, 145-150.
14.
Kağıtçıbaşı, C. (2005). Autonomy and relatedness in cultural context - Implications for self and family. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 403-422.
15.
Kolinsky, E. (1998). Social transformation and the family in post-communist Germany. Houndmills, UK: Macmillan .
16.
Lewin, K. (1936). Principles of topological psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
17.
Maaz, H.J. (1990). Der Gefühlsstau. Ein Psychogramm der DDR [Emotions behind bars. A profile of the GDR]. Berlin: Argon.
18.
Meyer-Probst, B., Teichmann, H., Hayes, A., & Rauh, H. (1991). Follow-up of a cohort of risk children from birth into adolescence - The Rostock Longitudinal Study. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 38, 225-246.
19.
Meyer-Probst, B., & Teichmann, H. (1984). Risiken für die Persönlichkeitsentwicklung im Kindesalter [Risks for personality development during childhood]. Leipzig, Germany: Thieme.
20.
Muhr, T. (1991). ATLAS/ti. A prototype for the support of text interpretation, Qualitative Sociology, Special Issue: Computers and Qualitative Data, 14, 349-371.
21.
Papastefanou, C. (1997). Auszug aus dem Elternhaus [Moving out of the parents' home]. Weinheim, Germany: Juventa .
22.
Perris, C., Jacobsson, L., Lindström, H., von Knorring, L., & Perris, H. (1980). Development of a new inventory for assessing memories of parental rearing behavior. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia , 61, 265-274.
23.
Reis, O. (2008). Intergenerational conflicts and the balance of autonomy and relatedness in East German families after the German unification . Manuscript submitted for publication.
24.
Reiss, D., & Olivieri, M.E. (1983). The family's construction of social reality and its ties to its kin network: An exploration of causal direction. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 45, 81-91.
25.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. New York: Oxford University Press.
26.
Sennett, R. (1970). Families against the city. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Silbereisen, R. (2005). Presidential address: Social change and human development: Experiences from the German unification. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 2-14.
29.
Sloane, D., & Morgan, S.P. (1996). An introduction to categorical data analysis. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 351-375.
30.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (Eds.). (1996). Grounded theory: Grundlagen qualitativer Sozialforschung. Weinheim, Germany: Psychologie Verlags Union.
31.
Super, C.M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 545-569.
32.
White, K.M., Houlihan, J., Costos, D., & Speisman, J.C. (1990). Adult development in individuals and relationships. Journal of Research in Personality, 24, 371-386.
33.
Williamson, D.S. (1991). The intimacy paradox. New York : Guilford Press.
34.
Wittchen, H.-U., Lachner, G., Perkonigg, A., & Hoeltz, J. (1994). Sind psychische Störungen in den neuen Bundesländern häufiger? [Are mental disorders more prevalent in the new Federal States?] . Verhaltenstherapie, 4, 96-103.
35.
Youniss, J., Noack, P., & Hofer, M. (1995). Human development under conditions of social change . In P. Noack, M. Hofer, & J. Youniss (Eds.), Psychological responses to social change (pp. 1-6). Berlin: de Gruyter.
36.
Youniss, J., & Smollar, J. (1985). Adolescent's relations with mothers, fathers, and friends. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
