ADHD glossary · Family perspectives
Interdependence: connected contributions without identical roles
The APA Dictionary describes interdependence as a relationship in which people or other entities rely on or respond to one another, so that a change in one affects another. [1]
General education and practical perspectives. Editorial standards.
For ordinary shared plans, the useful question is where the connections are. It is not whether everybody contributes the same thing, makes equal effort at every moment, or gives up independent choices. Describing reciprocal reliance does not tell us that an arrangement is fair or that anyone has agreed to it.
Follow a change through the plan
Imagine two adults preparing a small balcony garden. One will choose plants after the other measures the containers. The measuring depends on the first adult moving several stored boxes away from the balcony door. Neither person can complete their part entirely in isolation from the other's contribution.
When the boxes remain in place, the immediate question is how the plan changes. They might move the boxes together, postpone plant selection, or choose a different project. Blaming one person as dependent does not describe the actual chain: each has information or action the other is using.
This fictional example illustrates connected work. It does not prove that sharing tasks is always preferable to doing them separately. A different arrangement may suit the people involved, and a task may simply be unnecessary.
Connection is not blanket availability
Agreeing to measure a container does not automatically include collecting soil, carrying pots, or watering throughout the summer. Those are separate contributions. A household can acknowledge that its members affect one another while still asking before adding work to someone's role.
In the same way, being affected by someone else's decision does not mean owning the decision. The adults may need to discuss the balcony space they share, but neither gains authority over the other's unrelated interests by pointing out that they rely on each other.
Make the particular reliance visible
An optional note can use a simple sentence: “I need ___ from you before I can ___; you are waiting for ___ from me.” Include whether those actions are agreed, merely proposed, or no longer wanted. This is an original planning prompt, not a relationship assessment.
A teen helping select plant labels may depend on an adult for the final list of plants. The adult may depend on the teen's agreed design. That connection does not assign the teen responsibility for the whole garden. A grandparent offering advice is not automatically responsible for maintaining it either.
Partners can also distinguish practical reliance from a wish for emotional company. “Will you sit with me while I choose?” asks for something different from “Will you make the decision?” A clear request leaves room for either person to state what they can offer.
What this word cannot settle
Interdependence is not a synonym for mutual aid, which carries its own community-organizing context, or for a household division of labor. It describes a relationship among contributions or outcomes. It does not diagnose a relationship, establish an obligation, or require anyone to surrender privacy or personal boundaries.
Sources
1. American Psychological Association. Interdependence. APA Dictionary of Psychology. Updated April 19, 2018. Accessed September 6, 2026. Complete entry retrieved from the public endpoint used by the publisher's web application. Entry.
Related guides
Sources and what they support
These sources support the specific statements identified below. Our practical exercises are suggestions to consider, not evidence of a treatment effect.
-
interdependence — American Psychological Association — APA Dictionary of Psychology
Source type: professional reference.
Updated . Accessed .
Source check, September 6, 2026: Scoped source check. Passage: Complete entry, including reliance/reaction and mutual-change wording. Limits: No proof of fairness, compulsory reciprocity, surrender of autonomy, quality of relationship, clinical dependency, or duties.
Supports: The APA Dictionary describes interdependence as a relationship in which people or other entities rely on or respond to one another, so that a change in one affects another.
Correction check: Complete current publisher entry and its Updated on field inspected September 6, 2026. No separate correction or withdrawal notice appeared in the entry response. No publisher version archive or exhaustive correction-database search was available or performed; recorded status only describes material checked.
Updates and corrections
Published .
Found a factual error or something unclear? Use the contact route on our Trust page. Read our research method for the evidence approach.