Thoughts on separation from parents, death thought accessibility, and risk taking among teenagers - The moderating role of separation-individuation level. attachment style, and meaning in life

Separations occur throughout the life cycle, but during adolescence the experience of separation has a central meaning and is accompanied by various emotional and behavioral expressions. It is clear that the experience of separation among adolescents is widely accepted in the theoretical literature, and many theorists have described the importance of the symbolic separation from the parents alongside the complexity of these separation processes, which include a reflection of death experience. However, few studies have attempted to examine empirically the significance of the separation and its manifestations among adolescents. The purpose of this study was to examine this experience and its impact on existential thoughts such as thoughts of death and willingness to take risks.

This study consists of two experiments, the first focused on adolescents’ thoughts about separation from their parents and its influence on the accessibility of thoughts about death; The second focused on the influence of thoughts of separation from parents on behavioral expression that characterizes adolescence - the willingness to take risks, regarding three moderating variables relevant to adolescence: separation-individuation, attachment style, and meaning in life.

Adolescents (boys and girls) aged 16-18, high school students, who are not integrated into out-of-home frameworks. The sample in the study 1 included 151 participants who were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions; participants in the first group were exposed to thoughts about separation from their parents, whereas participants in the second group (control) were exposed to an aversive manipulation (dental experience). Afterwards, accessibility of thoughts about death was measured in all participants. In study 2, 259 adolescents were exposed to similar manipulations used in study 1, while participants were completed four different scales: willingness to take risks, attachment style, meaning in life, and separation-individuation.

The results of Study 1 indicated that thoughts of separation from parents raised significantly more thoughts about death than thoughts about an aversive issue. The results of Study 2 did not indicate a direct relationship between thoughts of separation from parents and willingness to take risks, but relationships were found between personality variables such as attachment style and separation-individuation characteristics, which moderated the association between thoughts of separation from parents and willingness to take risks. The Meaning in life has not been found as a moderating variable.

The importance of this research lies, theoretically, in promoting the knowledge of the affinity between the meaning of separation and the meaning of death on the one hand, and on the other hand, the understanding of the affinity between a possible separation from parents and the willingness to take risks. Its importance lies also in deepening the understandings regarding the role of various moderating variables. The examination of these relationships is particularly important among adolescents, with death themes, separation and risk taking, being significant component in building their personal identity. Its importance may also be expressed in terms of implementation, in the enrichment of intervention methods, and in the development of appropriate treatment responses for adolescents at this significant stage of life.