The Moderating Effects of Close Social Relationships:Psychological Separation and College Adjustment
AUTHOR : 박정애,진미경
INFORMATION : page. 101~123 / 2015 Vol.22 No.1
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to test the moderating effects in close social relationships between
college students' psychological separation and college adjustment. The subjects were 637 college
students from 9 universities in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do. For the purposes of this research, the Korean
psychological separation inventory, the Korean student adaptation to college questionnaire and the
affective relationships scale were used. The results showed that for both male and female students,
the greater the conflictual separation is, the higher the level of college adjustment. Second, male
students were better adjusted to college because they were closer and more intimate with their
fathers and romantic partners. Female students demonstrated similar results as they were intimate
with their mothers. Third, among the influences of functional and emotional separation, moderating
effects of the close relationship with parents had a significant effect on the college adjustment of the
male students. In other words, male students were found to have a higher level of college
adjustment because they maintained a closer and more intimate relationship with their parents even
if they had an equal level of functional and emotional separation. These results suggest that a close
relationship with parents should be considered in college adjustment.