First Year Experience

Moving through autonomy toward interdependence

A key developmental step for students is learning to function with self-sufficiency, to take responsibility for pursuing self-chosen goals, and to be less bound by others' opinions. Emotional independence means freedom from continual and pressing needs for reassurance, affection, or approval. Chickering and Reisser report that it begins with separation from parents and proceeds through reliance on peers, nonparental adults, and occupational or institutional reference groups (1993). It culminates in the diminishing need for such supports and increased willingness to risk loss of friends or status in order to pursue strong interests or stand on convictions. While gaining this independence, students realize that acceptance from peers is no longer the single most satisfying component in their life. Now is the time to think for yourself and about yourself.

Another key developmental piece is the ability to think critically and independently. This also involves learning to get from one place to another, and to find information resources required to fulfill personal needs and desires.

Chickering and Reisser point out that developing autonomy culminates in the recognition that one cannot operate in a vacuum and that greater autonomy enables healthier forms of interdependence (1993). The relationship with your parents changes. New relationships based on equality and reciprocity replace the older, less consciously chosen peer bonds. Interdependence involves respecting the autonomy of others and looking for ways to give and take with an ever-expanding circle of friends.

---

Reference:
Chickeirng, Arthur, & Reisser, Linda. Education and Identity. Jossey-Bass: San Franciscio, CA 1993.