The effect of perceived parental acceptance-rejection on psychological adjustment as mediated by the sense of identity

The Effect of Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection on Psychological Adjustment as Mediated by the Sense of Identity In this study, 671 university students were analyzed in terms of parental aceeptance-rejection, psychological adjusment and sense of identity. Subjects were administered Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire, Personality Assessment Questionnaire developed by Rohner (1986, 1999) and Sense of Identity Assesssment Form (SIAF) developed by Dereboy et al. (1994). In order to assess the predictive power of independent variables on the dependent variable, series of simple linear and multiple regression analyzes were employed. In terms of general psychological adjustment, the findings of this study demonstrated that identity problem university students group were less adjusted than the others. Identity problem group had a more aggressive, dependent, impaired feelings of self-esteem (negative self-concept) and self-adequacy, emotionally unresponsive (difficulty in giving appropriate emotional responses), emotionally unstable and negative worldview. The findings of the study revealed that identity problem group perceived more aggression, neglect, undifferentiated neglect and less affection than university students who have not identity problem. Two groups differed in terms of mother and father parental acceptance-rejection. When the mediation effect of sense of identity on the relationship between parental acceptance-rejection and cureent psychological adjustment was examined it was found that the sense of identity had a partial mediation effect in university students. In terms of parental acceptance-rejection, while sense of identity had full mediation effect on the relationship between parental acceptance-rejection and current psychological adjustment in the female university students, in the male university students it had a partial mediation effect. Key Words: Parental acceptance-rejection, psychological adjustment, sense of identity