Understanding the Emotional Detachment of Adolescents from Their Parents: A Qualitative Study

An individual’s attachment is the foundation for their socioemotional development and their capability to establish and maintain meaningful relationships. In contrast, emotional detachment is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals find themselves lacking emotional attachment or connection towards other people. The present study aimed to understand adolescents’ emotional detachment from their parents and what it entails to be emotionally detached. Previous studies have shown that the issue of children being emotionally detached to their parents persists to this day, and that it is a pressing matter that the child can be burdened with until adulthood. However, only a few have touched on the emotional detachment of adolescents, despite adolescence being a crucial period in an individual’s life that comes with heightened sensitivity and vulnerability. Thus, the present study was conducted in search of answers to this question by interviewing emotionally detached adolescents and coding techniques to utilize thematic analysis in the analysis of their answers. The findings show that the emotional detachment of adolescents from their families stems from various factors within their family dynamics. This affects not only the individual’s emotions within themselves but also towards other people. It gives the implication that families, especially parents, must be mindful of their children as they depend on them not just financially, but emotionally. If they don’t, the child could grow up carrying the burden of being emotionally detached which they could potentially pass on to their future offspring as well.