Differentiation of Self, Stress, and Emotional Support as Predictors of Psychological Distress

We explored the relations among stress, emotional support, and differentiation of self from the family of origin as predictors of psychological distress in a sample of 200 college students. First, we investigated the discrepant findings of Murdock and Gore (Contemp Fam Ther 23: 319–335, 2004) and Skowron et al. (J Couns Dev 82: 69–78, 2004) regarding the relationships among stress, differentiation, and symptoms (a question of mediation vs. moderation). Second, we examined the role of emotional support in concert with stress and differentiation. When both stressful events and perceived stress were measured, differentiation of self was found to be a significant partial mediator of their effects on psychological distress. Emotional support was also found to partially mediate the relationship between differentiation of self and psychological distress. Differentiation of self partially mediated the relationship between actual and perceived stress, and perceived stress partially mediated the relationship between differentiation of self and psychological distress.