Relazioni familiari e processi identitari: Intrusività genitoriale e costruzione dell'identità di coppia

[Autom. eng. transl.] Introduction. The acquisition of a clear and distinct identity structure is influenced by the way in which the family system treats the psychological boundaries of its members. Achieving a mature identity is facilitated by the presence of clear boundaries within the family. On the contrary, the violation of psychological boundaries by parents, or parental intrusiveness, interferes with the children's identity processes. Objectives and Methods. The literature focused almost exclusively on the negative effects of parental intrusiveness on the individual self of children during childhood and adolescence. The present work aims to verify the influence of parental intrusiveness on identity processes at the level of the relational self, and in particular of the identity of the couple, of young adult children through two experimental studies. The first study focuses on the other-serving bias, a strategy involved in the process of maintaining a couple's identity. 102 couples engaged in a task with an interdependent result and made responsibilities with respect to the outcome. In the second study 203 young adults in a couple relationship attributed a monetary value to their identity as a couple. In both studies the participants completed preliminary measures of parental intrusiveness. Results. In the first study the partners manifest the other-serving bias only in the case of low parental intrusiveness. In the second study, participants with intrusive parents attribute less value to their identity as a couple; the link between intrusiveness and identity as a couple is also mediated by the clarity of the concept of self. Conclusions. The family's ability to "let go" of children does not only affect the process of constructing individual identity, but also the acquisition of the identity of the couple as children.