Controlling Parents Thwart Students' Motivation, Self-Perceptions, and Psychosocial Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: Advances in Self-Determination Theory Research

Abstract

Parental involvement is often scrutinized when understanding student achievement, motivation, and well-being. From self-determination theory, parenting styles are described as either autonomy-supportive or controlling. Although recent meta-analyses documented the influence of parental autonomy-support on achievement and psychosocial functioning as well as the role of parental control on achievement, there is a lack of meta-analytic evidence for parental control’s effects on students’ motivation, self-perceptions, and psychosocial outcomes. The present synthesis investigated how parental control correlates with these outcomes and found negative associations with adaptive variables (psychological health, competence self-perceptions, and autonomy) and positive associations with maladaptive outcomes (depression, anxiety, extrinsic motivation). The type of control parents exert over their children matter, and implications for research and practice will be discussed.

Authors

• Carlton Jing Fong, Texas State University

• Ariana Christine Vasquez, University of Pittsburgh

• Erika Alisha Patall, University of Southern California