Autonomy and Relatedness in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Relationships with Parental Support and Psychological Distress Cristiano Inguglia • Sonia Ingoglia • Francesca Liga • Alida Lo Coco • Maria Grazia Lo Cricchio Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014 Abstract Autonomy and relatedness are fundamental needs both in adolescence and in emerging adulthood which are affected by parental support and are linked to children’s psychological distress. The study investigated autonomy and relatedness in late adolescents and emerging adults living in Italy, analyzing the relationships with perceived parental support and psychological distress. Self- report data were collected from a sample of 325 Caucasian adolescents and emerging adults (males = 41 %) ranging in age from 17 to 26 years and living in Sicily (southern Italy). Results showed that: (a) both autonomy and relat- edness were positively predicted by parental support to these needs, (b) perceived support for autonomy was pos- itively associated with perceived support for relatedness, (c) autonomy and relatedness were positively related to each other for emerging adults, but they were not related for teens, (d) autonomy predicted negatively depression and loneliness, while relatedness predicted negatively externalizing problems (only for adolescents), stress, depression, and loneliness. Taken together, the findings confirmed that autonomy and relatedness are fundamental needs for both teens and emerging adults related to parental support and psychological health. Notwithstanding, age moderated some of the investigated relationships suggest- ing that autonomy and relatedness have different meanings, as well as playing different roles during adolescence and emerging adulthood. Keywords Autonomy Á Relatedness Á Adolescence Á Emerging adulthood Á Psychological distress Á Parental support Introduction Autonomy and relatedness are fundamental needs for all human beings (Deci and Ryan 2000, 2008; Vansteenkiste et al. 2006), linked to personal achievement and adjustment (Chirkov 2012; Deci and Ryan 2000; Kag ˘itc ¸ibas ¸i 2005; Ryff and Singer 1998). Autonomy can be defined as the sense of volition, the desire to self-organize experience and behavior, and to have activity concordant with one’s inte- grated sense of self (Deci 1980; Ryan and Connell 1989; Sheldon and Elliot 1999), whereas relatedness can be defined as the feeling to be connected to others, to love and care, and to be loved and cared for, establishing high quality, satisfying, and positive bonds with others (Bau- meister and Leary 1995; Ryan 1993). These needs may be viewed as highly complementary motives (Guisinger and Blatt 1994; Hodgins et al. 1996; Ryan and Lynch 1989), and a mutual integration of the two concerns is thought to be necessary for optimum psychological health (Guisinger and Blatt 1994). The link between autonomy and related- ness goes beyond a simple interaction, but involves a dialectical process along two developmental lines in which progress in a line is essential in order to have progress in the other: In this perspective, the development of an increasingly differentiated, integrated, and mature sense of self is contingent on establishing satisfying interpersonal experiences and vice versa (Blatt and Blass 1996; Emde 1994; Guisinger and Blatt 1994; Kag ˘itc ¸ibas ¸i 1996; Ryan et al. 1995). In typical development, these processes evolve in a reciprocally balanced and mutually facilitating fashion C. Inguglia (&) Á S. Ingoglia Á A. Lo Coco Á M. G. Lo Cricchio Department of Psychology, Universita ` degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 15, 90128 Palermo, Italy e-mail: cristiano.inguglia@unipa.it F. Liga Department of Human and Social Sciences, Universita ` degli Studi di Messina, Messina, Italy 123 J Adult Dev DOI 10.1007/s10804-014-9196-8