Influences on young adults' earliest memory and memory fluency

Abstract

Parent-child relationships have a marked impact on child development that continues into adulthood, such as the development of identity. Identity formation is based upon one's life story, consisting of past memories, perceived present, and predictive future, collectively providing a sense of purpose and unity (McAdams, 1985; 2006). Thus, the recall of autobiographical memories is necessary in the construction of identity. Currently, there is no study that has examined the importance of parent-child relationships and frequency and function of reminiscing on adults' earliest memory and memory fluency. Therefore this study examines this issue by interviewing 149 young adults regarding memory, and measuring parent-child relationships and reminiscing. Results show that the quality of parent-child relationships, the amount of parental involvement, and reminiscing are associated with early autobiographical memory, though they account for only a modest proportion of the variance.