Numerous descriptive accounts suggest that Soviet society and child-rearing practices encourage more psychological dependency than do western practices. The present study attempted to test this hypothesis. Participants were 560 university students (250 females and 310 males) who immigrated to Israel from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) between 1989 and 1994. Subjects completed the Psychological Separation Inventory, a standard measure of psychological independence. Their results were compared with previously reported data on American college students and on adolescents in the FSU. Compared with American adolescents, émigrè adolescents from the FSU in Israel were found to be less psychologically independent from their parents. However, they were more independent than their peers in the FSU and grew more psychologically independent over time. The findings are discussed in light of Soviet society and family processes associated with migration. © 2001, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

Adolescents Immigration psychological independence Soviet

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