Family Emotional Support and the Individuation Process Among Asian- and Latino-Heritage College-Going Emerging Adults

This study examined whether discrepancies in emerging adults' perceptions of their own and their parents' value of education were associated with their individuation from family, and whether this relationship was mediated by family emotional support. A total of 82 Asian‐ and Latino‐heritage emerging adults completed a survey assessing their and their parents' value of education, family emotional support, and family engagement (our proxy for individuation). As predicted, larger discrepancies in the value placed on education were associated with less family engagement; this association was mediated by emerging adults' perceptions of family emotional support. These findings suggest that family emotional support may play an important role in the individuation process of Asian‐ and Latino‐heritage college‐going emerging adults.

Although adolescents and emerging adults often share the same core values and beliefs as their parents (Smetana, [47] ; Wyatt & Carlo, [54] ), as they begin to navigate their peer, school, and community worlds on their own they encounter ideologies that differ from those of their parents. Increases in autonomy and cognition allow adolescents and emerging adults to think abstractly, reflect on their childhood ideologies, and reconsider the values and beliefs socialized by their parents and other key adults in their lives. Close relationships with family and friends provide the support and security, that is, a secure base, needed to revisit and formulate their own ideologies and develop their identities (Erikson, [15] ). Individuation from family and friends, that is, balancing the need for autonomy with the need for connection in close relationships, is an important developmental task of adolescence and emerging adulthood (Azmitia, Syed, & Radmacher, [5] ; Erikson, [15] ; Grotevant & Cooper, [22] ; Wintre & Yaffe, [53] ). Individuation also plays a key role in identity development (Erikson, [15] ).

Developmental research has shown that the interplay between autonomy and connectedness, that is, individuation, can be an important mechanism in adolescents' and emerging adults' identity formation, family and peer relationships, and mental health (Adams & Marshall, [1] ; Grotevant, [20] ; Grotevant & Cooper, [21] , [22] ; McElhaney & Allen, [36] ). Erikson ([14] ) introduced the concept of individuation when he proposed that identity formation involves developing autonomy from significant others, defining autonomy as being able to have distinctive individual characteristics separate from significant others while maintaining a connection to them. Bowlby's construct of autonomy–relatedness describes a similar process within attachment relationships (Murphey, Silber, Coelho, Hamburg, & Greenberg, [38] ). Kagitcibasi ([27] , [28] ) has suggested that, in addition to separateness, the construct of autonomy should include individual agency, which allows people to negotiate a balance between autonomy and relatedness. Like Markus and Kitayama ([34] , [35] ), she argues that while cultures vary in their construal of this balance, in all cultures self‐construals include autonomy and relatedness, two basic human needs (Brewer, [8] ).

Although researchers vary in their definition of autonomy, autonomy has generally been referred to as the ability to generate independent thought and make decisions for oneself that are separate from those encouraged by significant others. Erikson and other identity researchers have proposed that the exploration and expression of independent thoughts and behaviors allows us to formulate and consolidate our unique identities and express our individuality (Erikson, [15] ; Grotevant & Cooper, [21] , [22] ). Connectedness refers to the need to be supported, accepted by and integrated into a larger social group and our meaningful relationships. Both autonomy and connectedness afford opportunities for personal identity exploration and a balance between the two fosters positive identity and social development (Adams & Marshall, [1] ; Grotevant & Cooper, [22] ; but see McElhaney & Allen, [36] ).

The theoretical development and empirical evidence of the individuation process has been advanced through both the identity and attachment literatures. Researchers have typically examined the interplay between autonomy and connectedness within interpersonal interactions or relationships with family and friends and identified behaviors that suggest that an adolescent or emerging adult is individuated (Allen, Hauser, Bell, & O'Connor, [2] ; Allen, Moore, Kuperminc, & Bell, [3] ; Grotevant, [20] ; Grotevant & Cooper, [21] , [22] ; McElhaney & Allen, [36] ). Behavior characteristics of cognitive or behavioral autonomy involve asserting one's point of view clearly, being open to others' ideas, understanding differences and similarities between one's and others' points of view, explaining and taking responsibility for one's opinions, and exhibiting confidence in one's proposals (Allen et al., [2] , [3] ; Grotevant & Cooper, [22] ; McElhaney, Allen, Stephenson, & Hare, [37] ). Behaviors that undermine autonomy include controlling behaviors such as coercing others to agree with one's point of view using undue pressure or guilt and psychological withdrawal such as recanting one's opinion without appropriate persuasion, stonewalling, or disengaging from the interaction (Allen et al., [2] , [3] ; McElhaney & Allen, [36] ). Connectedness, in contrast, is shown when adolescents are responsive to and show respect for family members' and friends' views and are able to take these views into consideration when expressing their own (Grotevant & Cooper, [21] ). Feelings of emotional support, alienation, trust, and communication have also been used to measure the degree of emerging adults' connectedness with others (Azmitia et al., [5] ; McElhaney & Allen, [36] ).

This study builds on this work by examining the internal negotiations, or intrapersonal processes, that are part of the process of individuation and their associations with interpersonal relationships. Although unpleasant, intrapersonal conflict is essential for healthy identity development because it signals that emerging adults are exploring their possible identities or selves (Erikson, [15] ). An important part of this exploration is to consider the values of important agents in one's lives, such as parents, and whether one accepts those values. After they grapple internally with the relation between their own and their parents' values, we would expect that emerging adults who are individuated would eventually reconcile any discrepancies and, given a supportive family environment, maintain a sense of connection with their parents even if they disagree with their values (Grotevant & Cooper, [22] ; Kerig, Swanson, & Ward, [29] ). An important question to consider, however, is whether individuation is impeded during this time of internal conflict. It is possible that if emerging adults decide that the ideological differences between their values and those of their parents are too large, feelings of disconnection from family may intensify because the emerging adult believes that their disparate views may not be accepted by their family, hindering their individuation, identity development, and mental health. Hwang and Wood ([26] ) found, for example, that high levels of cultural value discrepancies between Latino and Asian college students and their parents were associated with depression and low self‐esteem (see also Radmacher, Gills, & Azmitia, [42] ). We aimed to extend this research by assessing whether the extent of discrepancy in viewpoints with important others would be related to emerging adults' perception of the quality of those interpersonal relationships and their level of individuation. We operationalized autonomy as emerging adults' perceptions of the discrepancy between their own and their parents' values about education, connectedness as emerging adults' perceptions of the emotional support they received from their family, and individuation as emerging adults' perception of their overall family engagement.

Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage college students are ideal for studying the interplay between interpersonal and intrapersonal processes involved in individuation and identity development because the value discrepancy between home and college can be especially challenging for emerging adults from cultural communities that encourage close relationships and obligations to family, that is, interdependence (Azmitia, Syed, & Radmacher, [4] ; Cooper, [11] ; Orbe, [40] ). These two cultural communities emphasize close family ties, that is, familism, discourage explicit conflict with parents, grandparents, and other extended family members, engage in gendered socialization wherein sons are given more freedom than daughters, and place high value on education, often emigrating to the United States so children and adolescents can attend better schools and have more opportunities than they would have in their home countries (Cooper, [11] ; Gándara, [17] ; Grau, Azmitia, & Quattelbaum, [19] ; McElhaney & Allen, [36] ; Reis, Azmitia, Syed, Radmacher, & Gills, [43] ). The college context introduces these emerging adults to new ideas, peers, activities, and opportunities for self‐reflection that may allow them to reconsider the value systems they learned from their parents and may initiate intra‐ and interpersonal conflict and negotiation (Cooper, [11] ; Luyckx, Goossens, & Soenens, [33] ; Schachter, [45] ; Tao, Pratt, Hunsberger, & Prancer, [49] ).

While their feelings of obligation to their families may motivate college‐going Asian‐ and Latino‐heritage emerging adults to succeed academically, the press for autonomy that occurs during emerging adulthood may lead to a discrepancy between the value emerging adults place on education and the importance it holds for their parents (Azmitia et al., [5] ; Orbe, [40] ). As they explore new opportunities and relationships in college, emerging adults may view academics as only one domain among several that are important in their lives, such as romantic relationships and sexuality, student organizations or clubs, and political causes (Azmitia et al., [4] ). Moreover, self‐exploration of these other domains of identity or participation in the nonacademic opportunities college offers may be of equal or more importance than academic achievement (Azmitia et al., [5] ; Orbe, [40] ). Discrepancies between the value and priority emerging adults and their parents place on education may contribute to emerging adults' feelings of distance from their parents and desire to create “secret” identities that they do not share with their families (London, [32] ; Ochberg & Comeau, [39] ; Orbe, [40] ). The perception that one cannot discuss university issues with one's parents has a larger impact on females' than males' well‐being and adjustment to college, perhaps because girls and women receive stronger socialization to be interdependent or connected to others (Wintre & Yaffe, [53] ). Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage emerging adults may feel more distant from their parents if they perceive profound differences between their and their parents' views, and may feel such disconnect from family or friends that they become anxious or distressed (Hwang & Wood, [26] ; Orbe, [40] ; Tao et al., [49] ). Nevertheless, emerging adults' trust, security, and long‐term feelings of parental support and encouragement may buffer them against these feelings of distance, alienation, and secrecy about their priorities and identities. It is important to understand the role that this support plays in the individuation process because family support has been linked to a variety of outcomes in adolescents and emerging adults, including physical and mental health, academic achievement, and school adjustment (Cooper, [11] ; Reis et al., [43] ; Rice, Cole, & Lapsley, [44] ).

In this study, we focused on Asian‐ and Latino‐heritage college students to assess how emerging adults from cultures that place relatively more emphasis on interdependence than independence perceive their own and their parents' values about education and whether discrepancies between these values are associated with their felt individuation via their perceptions of family emotional support. Our primary goals were to (1) examine whether discrepancies in emerging adults' perceptions of their own (SVOE) and their parents' (PVOE) value of education were associated with their individuation from family; (2) assess whether this association was mediated by emerging adults' perceptions of the emotional support they received from their families; and (3) explore gender and ethnic patterns in these associations.

We focused on values related to education, that is, the importance of getting a college education, because Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage parents emphasize education (Ceballo, Maurizi, Suarez, & Aretakis, [9] ; Spera, Wentzel, & Matto, [48] ; Valencia, [51] ) and because there is stronger concordance between parents' and adolescents' values about education than between their values regarding other identity domains (Cooper, [11] ; Youniss & Smollar, [55] ). We predicted that emerging adults who perceived a larger discrepancy between SVOE and PVOE would feel less individuated from their family than emerging adults who perceived a smaller difference between their own and parents' views. We also hypothesized that perceived emotional support from family would mediate the relationship between the relative difference in SVOE and PVOE and individuation from family. Given past research that has shown Latino and Asian adolescents and emerging adults express similarly high educational aspirations but Latino and Asian parents are more likely to discourage daughters than sons from going to college (Cooper, [11] ; Gibson & Bhachu, [18] ), we hypothesized that women would report a greater discrepancy between SVOE and PVOE than men. Because we expected that a greater discrepancy in educational values would be associated with less individuation from family, we also hypothesized that women would report less individuation from family than men. Finally, because both Asian‐ and Latino‐heritage families place importance on close family ties, we did not expect to find any between‐ethnic differences in emerging adults' perceptions of family emotional support and individuation.

Participants included 82 Asian (primarily of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean heritage; n = 45) and Latino (primarily of Mexican heritage; n = 37) emerging adults (51 women; mean age = 17.95) who participated in a 4‐year longitudinal study examining the role of close relationships in the transition to college. Participants' generational status varied; 18 were immigrants (9 Latino and 9 Asian), 30 were first generation (11 Latino and 19 Asian), and 32 were second generation (14 Latino and 17 Asian). Even among second‐generation emerging adults 14 participants had one parent who had immigrated to the United States. Socioeconomic status (SES) was computed as a composite of parents' education and occupation using the Hollingshead Two‐Factor Index of Social Position (Hollingshead, [25] ). Participants' SES included 26 poor/working class, 30 middle class, 23 upper middle/upper class, with most Latino‐heritage participants classified as poor/working (n = 18) and middle class (n = 10) and Asian‐heritage participants falling mostly within the middle (n = 20) and upper middle class (n = 16) categories. For this study, we only included participants who completed all three measurement points during the first year of data collection and had complete data for all variables. In the analyses, one participant was excluded because the parents' value of education scale was not completed, and three were excluded because socioeconomic information was missing.

Ochberg and Comeau's ([39] ) value of education scale was used to assess participants' perception of their own (SVOE) and parents' (PVOE) value of education during the winter quarter. Seventeen items evaluated the importance participants and their parents place on education; participants responded using a 5‐point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The scale includes both positive and negative statements about the benefits of a college education. Sample items include “The chances of getting a good job are slim without a college degree” and “A lot of what you learn in college has little practical application.” Negative statements were reverse‐coded, and higher ratings on the index indicate that more value is placed on receiving a college education. We used the discrepancy between SVOE and PVOE to index emerging adults' autonomy from parents. Cronbach's alphas for both scales were moderate, with alphas of.61 for SVOE and.71 for PVOE.

Participants' perception of the emotional support they received from family was measured using Procidano and Heller's ([41] ) Perceived Social Support from Family measure during the fall and spring quarters (α = .94 for fall; α = .95 for spring). This measure of emotional support has been used in prior research with ethnic minority populations (Azmitia et al., [5] ; Way, Cowal, Gingold, & Bissenssar, [52] ). Sample items include “I rely on my family for emotional support” and “My family does not understand me.” Participants responded yes, no, or I don't know to each item; yes responses were scored as 1, no responses were scored as 0, and I don't know responses were excluded; this scoring procedure yields means for emotional support ranging between 0 and 1. Emerging adults' perception of the emotional support they received from family indexed connectedness.

Participants' completed Ochberg and Comeau's ([39] ) family engagement index during the winter quarter (α = .85); this measure served as our proxy for individuation. Eighteen items measured emerging adults' perceptions of how college affected their relationship with their families, including their families' acceptance of the emerging adults' autonomy and their perceived level of connection with their families. The scale includes both positive and negative questions regarding family relationships; it is measured on a 5‐point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Positive questions were reverse‐coded, and higher scores on the index reflect less family engagement, that is, less individuation. Sample items include “My family often doesn't understand the ups and downs of my college life”; “Even when we disagree, my family takes my point of view seriously”; and “Since I came to college, often my family and I just don't know what to say to each other.”

A random sample of potential participants was selected from a list of all self‐identified ethnic minority first‐year students admitted to the university for the fall of 2002 and who were invited by letter to participate in the longitudinal study the summer prior to entering the university. Those who returned a postcard indicating their desire to participate (approximately 50%) were contacted to schedule the fall data collection session. Additional participants were recruited through flyers posted on campus, a recruitment table in the student commons, and word of mouth. Emerging adults were paid $15 for their participation in the fall session and $20 for their participation in the winter and spring sessions. For this study, we selected students who identified as Latino or Asian heritage.

Participants completed a survey during the fall, winter, and spring quarters of their first year of college. At each time of measurement, participants completed a survey individually and at their own pace in a university laboratory. Most participants completed the survey in 20–45 min.

The primary goal of this study was to examine whether discrepancies in emerging adults' perceptions of their own (SVOE) and their parents' value of education (PVOE) were associated with their individuation from family, as measured by family engagement, and whether this association was mediated by the emotional support they received from their family. A squared difference score (X − Y)2 was computed to measure the discrepancy in emerging adults' SVOE (X) and PVOE (Y). Edwards ([13] ) shows that a model with (X − Y)2 as the sole predictor variable is equivalent to a model with five predictor variables (X, Y, XY, X2, and Y2) with slope coefficients that are subject to four constraints. Edwards argues that the four constraints should be justified before using a model with (X − Y)2 as the sole predictor variable. A test of the four constraints indicated that these constraints could not be rejected, F(4, 76) = 1.275, p = .287. The adjusted R2 for the five predictor variable model was.018 while and the adjusted R2 for our model was.039, which provides additional evidence that our model can be justified.

SVOE, PVOE, and family engagement (our proxy for individuation) were measured in the winter quarter while family emotional support was measured in both the fall and spring quarters of the emerging adults' first year of college. Because family emotional support was not measured in the winter quarter, we created a first‐year family emotional support variable (FES average) by averaging the scores from fall and spring. Because SES was correlated with ethnicity, we included the SES composite score as control variable in our analyses; higher scores refer to lower SES (Hollingshead, [25] ). Correlations, means, and standard deviations for all variables appear in Table [NaN] .

Correlations, Means, and Standard Deviations for Value of Education, Parents' Value of Education, VOE Squared Difference, Family Engagement (Individuation), and Family Support ( n  =   78)

3 †p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01.

First, we performed individual 2 (Gender) × 2 (Ethnicity) ANCOVAs to examine gender and ethnic variations in SVOE, PVOE, VOE squared difference, family emotional support average, and family engagement (individuation) while controlling for SES. Gender and ethnic differences on SVOE, VOE squared difference, family emotional support, and family engagement were not significant. There were also no ethnic differences for PVOE. A significant gender main effect for emerging adults' perceptions of the value their parents placed on education was obtained. Women (M = 3.83; SD = 0.42) reported that their parents' placed a higher value on education than men (M = 3.56; SD = 0.46), F(1, 78) = 5.63, p < .05 (Table [NaN] ). Finally, a paired sample t‐test revealed that emerging adults' perception of their PVOE (M = 3.72, SD = 0.45) was significantly higher than their SVOE (M = 3.29, SD = 0.37), t(81) = 8.92, p < .001.

Means and Standard Deviations for Value of Education, Parents' Value of Education, VOE Squared Difference, Family Engagement (Individuation), and Family Support by Ethnicity and Gender ( n  =   78)

4 p < .05.

To test our hypothesis that family emotional support would be a mediator between the discrepancy in values and emerging adults' individuation, we used a bootstrap sampling method proposed by Hayes ([23] ) and employed his PROCESS for SPSS macro, which tests for direct, indirect, and total effects (Hayes, [24] ). We chose this method over the causal steps approach (Baron & Kenny, [7] ) because it allows us to quantify the indirect effect through a direct inferential test and increases our statistical power given our small sample size (Hayes, [23] ). We included gender, ethnicity, and SES as control variables because they were either correlated with at least one model variable or with each other.

The simple mediation analysis revealed that the discrepancy in the value emerging adults and their parents placed on education (VOE squared difference) indirectly influenced emerging adults' individuation (as measured by family engagement) through its effect on their perceived emotional support from family in their first year of college (Table [NaN] ). As predicted, emerging adults who perceived more discrepancy between their own and parents' value of education also perceived less emotional support from their families (a = −0.128) and emerging adults who perceived less emotional support from their families felt less individuation (b = −1.445). A bias‐corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect of effect of family emotional support (ab = 0.184) based on 10,000 bootstrap samples was above zero (0.025–0.406). The perceived discrepancy in value of education did not influence emerging adults individuation independent of its effect on family emotional support (cʹ = 0.032, p = .761).

Simple Mediation Analysis for Family Emotional Support Mediating the Association Between VOE Squared Difference and Family Engagement (Individuation) Among Emerging Adults and Controlling for Gender, Ethnicity, and SES ( n =  78)

• 5 Note
• 6 Gender and Ethnicity dummy‐coded: 1 = Female; Latino.

To guard against the possibility of a false positive (type I error), we also ran the analysis without the covariates (Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn, [46] ). A bias‐corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the indirect effect of family emotional support based on 10,000 bootstrap samples was above zero (0.074–0.449), and the indirect effect was slightly higher without controlling for the covariates (ab = 0.225; Table [NaN] ). We tested the reverse model with family emotional support mediating the effect of family engagement on the squared difference in value of education, but it was not a good fit for our data because the 95% confidence interval for this model included zero (−0.024 to 0.345). We also tested the model with the squared difference in value of education mediating the effect of family emotional support on family engagement, which was not a good fit for our data either (−0.182 to 0.092).

Simple Mediation Analysis for Family Emotional Support Mediating the Association Between VOE Squared Difference and Family Engagement (Individuation) Among Emerging Adults ( n =  81)

• 7 Note
• 8 Gender and Ethnicity dummy‐coded: 1 = Female; Latino.

Our study examined the processes that may underlie individuation, that is, the dual need for autonomy and connection in relationships, among Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage college‐going emerging adults. Theories that support this dual need approach would suggest that not only should differences in values and beliefs be tolerated but that such differences also enhance feelings of relatedness between family members (Adams & Marshall, [1] ; Grotevant & Cooper, [21] , [22] ; McElhaney & Allen, [36] ). However, in cultural communities where family interdependence in terms of relatedness and heteronomy is valued and expected, differences in values may be perceived to undermine relatedness between family members (Hwang & Wood, [26] ). We examined whether a perceived discrepancy between emerging adults and their parents' values about education would hinder or enhance their feeling of individuation via the emotional support they felt from their family.

Our hypothesis that larger perceived discrepancies between emerging adults' and their parents' values about education would impede, even if only temporarily, the individuation process through their perceived lack of family support was supported. Emerging adults who perceived that their values regarding education differed substantially from those of their parents felt that their parents did not accept their autonomous choices and felt less connected to their families, that is, felt less individuated from their families. Also as predicted, the association between the parent‐emerging adult value of education discrepancy and individuation from parents was explained through emerging adults' perception of family support. That is, emerging adults who perceived a larger discrepancy between their own and their parents' value of education felt less individuated from their parents due to the lack of family support they felt. These findings support prior research by Grotevant and Cooper ([21] , [22] ), showing that emotionally supportive parent–adolescent/emerging adult relationships enhance individuation and extend these findings to two ethnic minority groups known for valuing close family relationships and respect and obedience to parents and other elders (Fuligni & Pedersen, [16] ).

Our findings also raise an interesting question regarding the process of individuation that deserves further investigation. Individuation allows emerging adults to feel comfortable holding or expressing different beliefs and opinions than their parents (Cooper, [11] ; Koepke & Denissen, [30] ). However, we found that the Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage emerging adults in our study felt less individuated, that is, less family engagement, from their parents when the emerging adult perceived a larger discrepancy in values. Our findings suggest that cultural values and expectations may play a role in the individuation process. A perceived difference in values may trigger an identity conflict within the emerging adults that requires the renegotiation of personal and cultural identities (Azmitia et al., [4] ). Emerging adults from cultures that discourage open disagreement with parents and encourage respect and obligation to elders, such as the Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage students who participated in our study, may perceive less emotional support from their families if their values and emerging identities are too disparate from their family's values and expectations, which in turn leads to the perception that their choices in college are not accepted and their family connection is impaired (Hwang & Wood, [26] ; Orbe, [40] ).

The indirect effect of values discrepancy on individuation via perceived family emotional support suggests that a balance between the need for autonomy and connection among Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage college‐going emerging adults' is maximized when key values are viewed to be in sync with their parents and, more generally, family. The press for similar values may stem in part from the value placed on family connection and cohesion in these cultural groups (Cooper, [11] ; Ochberg & Comeau, [39] ; Orbe, [40] ), that is, their relatively greater emphasis on interdependence than on independence (Markus & Kitayama, [35] ). Moreover, differences in cultural values between emerging adults and their parents have been found to correlate negatively with mental health (Hwang & Wood, [26] ). Our study contributes to this literature by examining another values system domain, educational importance, and demonstrates that a difference in values may impair an additional developmental outcome, individuation. Alternatively, the felt disconnect from family due to the perceived difference in values may be temporary. It is possible that, as they move through college, emerging adults and their parents renegotiate autonomy and connectedness processes such that parents are able to accept and support their more autonomous children, and emerging adults are better able to understand and value their parents' views even when they disagree with them, which is the hallmark of individuation (Grotevant & Cooper, [22] ).

Although prior research (Cooper, [11] ; Gibson & Bhachu, [18] ) has shown that parents often have higher educational expectations for sons than daughters, in our study women reported higher PVOE than men. It is possible that our results are specific to our sample, which attended a very selective public university in California where ethnic minority women outnumber men, and thus, the gendering of PVOE may have occurred long before emerging adults' transitioned into the university. Moreover, considerable research has shown that in many ethnic minority groups, such as Latinos, females perform better academically than males starting in middle school (Cobarrubias, [10] ), perhaps leading parents to revisit their gendered educational aspirations. However, we did not find any gender or ethnic variations in the associations between the value of education, familial emotional support, and family engagement, suggesting that the underlying processes involved in individuation may be similar across the gender and ethnic groups investigated in this study.

Although our study provides a window into the processes of autonomy, connectedness, and individuation in college‐going Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage emerging adults in the United States, a few limitations should be acknowledged. First, we only examined one domain of values difference between emerging adults and their parents. Emerging adulthood is key time for exploring values and beliefs in a variety of domains such as political ideologies, sexuality, career choices, friendships, and romantic relationships. In future studies, it would be important to examine whether value differences in these domains are also associated with feelings of family support and engagement. We also did not measure the salience that the value of education held in the college‐going emerging adults' lives. Other domains may hold equal or more salience for them and thus may play a more significant role in their individuation process (Azmitia et al., [5] ; Orbe, [40] ).

Second, our analysis focused on the first year of college, when the emerging adults were just beginning to explore their identities away from their home communities. It is possible that over time, perceived differences in values may increase as emerging adults are introduced to new ideologies and interests that are different from those of their families and begin to plan their lives after college. Alternatively, the discrepancy between emerging adults and their parents' values may decrease after emerging adults choose and invest in their majors and become aware of opportunities they have that are not available to their non–college‐going peers. Examining differences in these variables over time is essential for creating a longitudinal model of the key developmental processes addressed by our study and the ebbs and flows in autonomy, connectedness, and beliefs about the value of a college education.

Third, our findings may reflect the cultural values regarding the centrality of family for the particular subgroups of Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage emerging adults who participated in our study. It is possible that among cultural groups who place a high value on autonomy and gaining independence from family, such as European‐ and African‐heritage emerging adults, the associations between discrepancies in the value of education, emotional support, and family engagement may be different. It would be important to examine these associations among a variety of cultural groups to gain a more nuanced understanding of the role of intrapersonal processes in the process of individuation. Finally, the reduction in power due to our small sample size may have masked potential gender and ethnic variations in the patterns that obtained.

Despite its limitations, our study extends theory and research on individuation and family relationships to include ethnic minority groups and, in particular, U.S. Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage emerging adults, who place a high value on family interdependence. Understanding the individuation process is particularly important among college‐going emerging adults from such ethnic groups given the mainstream value and expectation that going to college in the United States provides an opportunity for emerging adults to explore, and potentially accept, ideas and values that may be different from those they grew up with (Ochberg & Comeau, [39] ). Our findings reveal further the significance of examining the associations between values, family support, and the individuation processes, given that prior research has found an association between family support and persistence in college (Cooper, [11] ; Dennis, Phinney, & Chauteco, [12] ).

Future research should also examine between‐ and within‐ethnic group differences in the individuation process by exploring the potential variations due to emerging adults' country of origin and SES. Despite sharing a strong sense of obligation to family and commitment to upward mobility through education, Latino‐ and Asian‐heritage emerging adults vary dramatically in their representation in higher education and the professional class (Bailey, Saperstein, & Penner, [6] ). Because Latinos are predicted to be the majority in California and other U.S. states in the near future, it is important to understand the family and individual factors that promote their attendance and persistence in college. Although Asian‐heritage adolescents and emerging adults are considered as “model minorities” vis‐à‐vis education, this stereotype masks the high level of within group variability in educational attainment (Lee, [31] ; Tran & Birman, [50] ). Our focus on emerging adults of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean descent also limits the generalizability of our findings.

In our future work, we plan to include students from South‐East Asia, and in particular Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, to assess individuation processes in the context of educational goals in Asian‐heritage groups who have been less successful in high school and college graduation rates and are more likely to inhabit working class and poor neighborhoods in large cities or rural areas and experience more educational challenges in high school and college. We also plan to broaden our Latino sample to include country of origin and family educational history in our analyses. Mexican and Central American families typically have less schooling than South American families, and students who are the first in their families to go to college may experience less family engagement over time than middle‐ and professional‐class Latino families with college‐educated parents and siblings (Azmitia et al., [4] ; Orbe, [40] ). Moreover, including parents' and siblings' reports of their perceptions of the value of education and engagement with their college‐going emerging adults would allow us to gain a deeper, bidirectional, understanding of the benefits and costs of a college education.