The Relationship Between Separation-individuation, Family Cohesion And School Adjustment In College Freshmen

Separation-Individuation which was introduced by Mahler means a process of forming the boundary between others and themselves, separating from the parents on the psychology and finally separating from them totally. In the process, the individual develops their inner self-determination. Later, on the basis of Mahler's theory, Blos introduced the concept of the second Separation-Individuation. He considered that Adolescence was in the period of the second Separation-Individuation. They tried to break away from the mother image which was formed when they were babies, be away from mothers'dependence, recheck the image of the parents and finally construct a clear ego. Separation-Individuation is a main task of adolescence. The good Separation-Individuation can help the individual form the clear and steady boundary between others and themselves, reduce the dependence on the important others, and fit for the future life. The purposes of this study are as following: 1. reviewing the reliability and validity of Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence with confirmatory factor analysis; 2. reviewing the characteristics of Separation-Individuation of college freshmen, and describing the colony characteristics of Separation-Individuation of college freshmen in China; 3. reviewing the relationship of family cohesion, separation-individuation and school adjustment, and analyzing the influence on school adjustment of family elements, which provides a new idea for improving the adapting ability of college freshmen. The formal test was conducted in six universities in Shijiazhuang and Baoding of Hebei province, and Taiyuan of Shanxi province. After stratified cluster sampling, 931 students, 350 female and 581 male participated in the experiment. The study got the following results after analyzing the data:1. "Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence" has been used to measure the positive separation-individuation and the negative separation-individuation, in which enmeshment seeking, self-centeredness and healthy separation are included in the content of the positive separation-individuation, as well as separation anxiety, engulfment anxiety, dependency denial and nurturance seeking are included in the content of negative separation -individuation. Meanwhile the scale has good reliability and validity indicators. 2. At present, the general level of separation of the college freshmen is good. However, 13.2% of college freshmen's positive separation-individuation is lower. 19% of college freshmen's negative separation-individuation is higher.3. In the separation anxiety, engulfment anxiety, dependency denial and the negative separation-individuation, the male was significantly higher than those female.In the enmeshment seeking, healthy separation and the positive separation-individuation,the female was significantly higher than those male; In healthy separation, the students who have love experienced was significantly better than those who have no experience; In engulfment anxiety, the non-single child was significantly better than only one child, and the students who live in rural areas was significantly better than students who live in the cities; In self-centeredness, the students who live in urban areas were significantly better than students who live in the rural students; There is no difference of Separation-individuation of college freshmen on professionalism and class cadre.4. The freshmen who have different positive separation-individuation have differences on family cohesion, school adjustment and its dimension, living environment, emotional adaption, activities, and communicating activities. The freshmen who have different negative separation-individuation have differences on family cohesion, emotional adaption, school adjustment and its dimension, activities (except living environment), and communicating activities.5. Family cohesion and separation-individuation of college freshmen has good predication for school adjustment. Meantime, positive separation-individuation and negative separation-individuation play parts of the intermediary role for family cohesion and its dimensions.