Antecedents and consequences of mothers' autonomy support: an experimental investigation.
This study examined the effects of contextual and individual differences on mothers' autonomy support versus control on homeworklike tasks. Sixty mothers and their third-grade children worked on map and poem tasks, with mothers in either an ego-involving (high pressure) or a non-ego-involving (low pressure) condition. Later, children worked on similar tasks themselves. Mothers in the high-pressure condition were more controlling on the poem task. For the map task, mothers who came in with controlling styles and received the high-pressure manipulation were most controlling. Children whose mothers interacted in a more controlling manner wrote less creative poems when alone. Results suggest the importance of context, children's competence levels, and mothers' styles in determining levels of autonomy support.
Grolnick
Wendy S
WS
Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, USA. wgrolnick@clarku.edu
Gurland
Suzanne T
ST
DeCourcey
Wendy
W
Jacob
Karen
K
D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires