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International audience; Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism.Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and parental burnout measured at the individual level in 36 countries (16,059 parents). Results The results revealed three mediating mechanisms, that is, self-discrepancies between socially prescribed and actual parental selves, high agency and self-directed socialization goals, and low parental task sharing, by which individualism leads to an increased risk of burnout among parents.Conclusion The results confirm that the three mediators under consideration are all involved, and that mediation was higher for self-discrepancies between socially prescribed and actual parental selves, then parental task sharing, and lastly selfdirected socialization goals. The results provide some important indications of how to prevent parental burnout at the societal level in Western countries.

International audience; In Western countries, recent decades have witnessed a revolution toward gender equality. Inequalities have been greatly reduced in areas such as education or employment. Because inequalities lead to distress, this development has largely benefited women. One notable exception is the realm of parenting, which has remained rife with inequalities even in the most egalitarian countries. We hypothesized that experiencing inequality in parenting when one holds egalitarian values and raising a child in a country characterized by a high level of gender equality in other areas, increases mothers’ psychological distress in the specific area of parenting. Multilevel modeling analyses computed among 11,538 mothers from 40 countries confirmed this prediction: high egalitarian values at the individual level and high gender equality at the societal level are associated with higher burnout levels in mothers. The associations hold beyond differences in sociodemographic characteristics at the individual level and beyond economic disparities at the societal level. These findings show the importance of egalitarian values and gender equality and their paradoxical effect when inequalities are still present in specific areas as parenting. This study reveals the crucial need to act not only at the micro level but also at the macro level to promote gender equality in parenting and prevent parental burnout.

Motivation plays a key role in individuals’ persistence, well-being, and performance. A common assumption is that everyone fares better when strongly motivated. Yet, as the authors of this essay point out, this is not always true. Although a lack of motivation is problematic, more motivation is not necessarily better. According to self-determination theory, autonomous motivation (“wantivation”) represents ideal motivation with a clear-cut pattern of desirable effects, while controlled motivation (“mustivation”) represents a mixed bag, yielding both desirable and undesirable outcomes. Extensive research now allows motivational researchers to safely conclude that “not all types of motivation are created equal.” Although a lack of motivation is problematic, for motivation to carry durable positive effects, it is strongly desirable that individuals display high wantivation instead of high mustivation.

Teachers, leaders, parents, and sport coaches often rely on their intuition to motivate others. Although sometimes effective, intuition can also misguide motivating agents. Intuition needs to be sharpened by theoretical insights. Grounded in self-determination theory, this essay presents a motivating compass featuring a variety of motivating (e.g., guiding, attuning) and demotivating (e.g., domineering, abandoning) approaches situated in a circular structure. Whereas some practices in the model relate to greater engagement and high-quality motivation because of their need-satisfying properties, other practices come with a motivational cost and predict disengagement because of their need-frustrating effect. This motivating compass provides concrete indications of how to motivate others.

Whether a universal recipe exists for motivating others is an intriguing question. Most people would probably doubt this possibility, instead arguing that one needs to adjust one’s motivational approach according to the person and situation at hand (i.e., motivational tailoring). To be effective, a motivational practice first needs to nurture the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. These three needs serve as essential nutrients for every person’s long-term motivation, engagement, and well-being regardless of age, cultural background, gender, or personality. These needs represent the critical “vitamins” for individuals’ psychological growth and flourishing. Although the satisfaction of these psychological needs is said to be universally important, people differ in their perception of contextual support and in the way they deal with contexts that thwart their needs.

Although the existence of a set of physical needs is well accepted within biology, the question whether humans have a parallel set of psychological needs has been more controversial within the psychological landscape. The identification, characterization, and study of basic needs has been central to the research agenda of Basic Psychological Needs Theory, one of SDT’s six mini-theories. In this chapter, we provide an in-depth characterization of the nine criteria that characterize the basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence: essential, psychological, pervasive, universal, inherent, distinct, content-specific, directional, and explanatory. We elaborate on the theoretical and research implications of these criteria and provide a selective review of this rapidly growing body of empirical work. We conclude that basic needs provide a universal and parsimonious framework to account for people’s growth and flourishing as well as their stagnation and problem behavior, while also accounting for the growth-conducive versus toxic effects of different environments.

According to self-determination theory (SDT), people have a natural propensity to develop toward higher levels of psychosocial maturity. This growth tendency requires ongoing support for the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Using Erikson’s theory as an organizing framework, this chapter provides an overview of SDT-based developmental research on the role of psychological need satisfaction in psychosocial adjustment across the lifespan. This research increasingly shows that psychological need satisfaction contributes to age-specific and cumulative psychosocial strengths in every stage of human life. Although support for the basic psychological needs (e.g., by attachment figures) is crucial throughout the lifespan, the specific manifestations of contextual need support differ somewhat depending on individuals’ developmental stage. Moreover, as they age, people increasingly contribute in proactive ways to their own need-based experiences. Ultimately, satisfaction of the basic psychological needs and contextual need support represent essential resources for people to tackle developmental challenges and to experience psychosocial growth.

Feelings of competence play a key role in youth athletes' sport experiences and behaviors. Although competence is affected by both contextual and personal characteristics, most studies have focused on the role of either context or athletes' personality in competence. To study competence from a Person-x-Context perspective, the current experimental field study examined the unique and interactive role of self-critical perfectionism and normative feedback in youth competitive tennis players' (N = 59, M-age = 15.47, SD = 1.63) competence need satisfaction and subsequent tension and enjoyment. Participants first filled out a measure of self-critical perfectionism and then performed a series of tennis exercises, presented as a competition in which their results were compared to an interpersonal standard. Positive, compared to negative, normative feedback enhanced competence need satisfaction, while self-critical perfectionism yielded a negative relation. Both predictors interacted such that self-critical perfectionism exacerbated the impact of negative normative feedback on competence. In turn, competence played an intervening role in the association between normative feedback and self-critical perfectionism on the one hand, and players experienced enjoyment and tension on the other hand. Overall, the results testify to the importance of studying competence dynamics from a Person-x-Context perspective.

During the pregnancy period, future parents differ substantially in their psychological adjustment, with some parents being more at risk for stress and depression than others. Grounded in self-determination theory, the present study aimed to investigate the role of motivation to have a child and the social support perceived by both partners in predicting partners’ psychological distress. We examined whether satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness played an intervening role in associations of motivation and social support with future parents’ distress. Two hundred and forty-six Italian couples of heterosexual expecting parents participated. Using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), results showed that perceived support and autonomous motivation to have a child in both partners relate positively to their own psychological need satisfaction. In turn, the satisfaction of needs relates negatively to depressive symptoms and stress, thereby mediating in both partners the effects of perceived support and quality of motivation to have a child. The implications of the findings for future research and clinical interventions are discussed.

According to Self-Determination Theory, intrinsic motivation is a natural growth tendency that fuels students’ learning, development, and well-being. In this chapter, we sketch a developmental model of intrinsic motivation, thereby describing an evolution from fleeting and undifferentiated interests to the gradual unfolding of an enduring, refined, and well-anchored intrinsically motivated identity. To foster such mature forms of intrinsic motivation, learners’ psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness need to be supported on both the short and long run. Yet, because not all learning material and school-related activities are interesting, a critical task for socializing figures is to foster the growth process of internalization, such that learners experience a sense of ownership regarding extrinsically motivated activities. Teachers and school climates that are conducive to learners’ psychological needs promote learners’ endorsement of the learning activity at hand, while also allowing them to ground their functioning on a deeper set of values, commitments, and preferences, which serve as a more stable basis for regulating their day-to-day learning activities. Apart from discussing these growth processes and the energizing role of psychological needs, we review past work which provides insights in the way how teachers can foster learners’ intrinsic motivation and internalization.

This study examined the family emotional climate as assessed by Five Minute Speech Samples and the relation with parenting stress and parenting behaviors among parents of children (6–17 years, 64.7% boys) with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and without any known disability (n = 447). The large majority of parents (79%) showed low levels of Expressed Emotion, an indicator of a positive family climate. In all groups, more Emotional Over-involvement, more Criticism and fewer expressions of Warmth were associated with higher levels of parenting stress. Across groups, Emotional Over-involvement was related to more autonomy-supportive parenting, Criticism to more psychologically controlling and overreactive parenting, and Warmth was associated with more responsive and less psychologically controlling and overreactive parenting.

Introduction. Satisfaction of adolescents’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness contributes to their well-being. Socialization figures (e.g., parents) can assist adolescents in getting these needs met. In addition, adolescents can engage in need crafting, thereby proactively managing their behavior towards improved need satisfaction. This research aimed to develop a need crafting measure and to examine the role of need crafting in adolescents’ need-based experiences and mental health. Method. A cross-sectional study in 233 Flemish students (Study 1; Mage=16.6, 58.4% female) addressed the psychometric properties of a need crafting measure and its associations with relevant constructs. Using a three-wave longitudinal study in 436 Flemish students (Study 2; Mage=16.33, 66,0% female), we investigated the role of need crafting in adolescents’ mental health and the intervening role of need-based experiences. Results. In Study 1, a CFA yielded evidence for the psychometric quality of the need crafting measure. Need crafting was related in meaningful ways with different validation constructs and with adolescents’ need-based experiences. Study 2 showed that need crafting was related to adolescents’ mental health, both at the level of inter-individual differences and at the level of intra-individual change. Need-based experiences accounted partly for the mental health benefits associated with need crafting, with the effects remaining significant after controlling for perceived maternal need-support. Conclusion. The findings provide initial evidence for the importance of adolescents’ need crafting in mental health. Future research needs to further examine factors that determine adolescents’ ability to manage their own psychological needs.

Objective. Across nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccination, people in Belgium differed widely in their vaccination intention. In the present study, we examined (a) how people’s vaccination intentions changed during the vaccination rollout and (b) whether changes in motivation (i.e., autonomous, controlled, and distrust-based (a)motivation) predicted changes in vaccination intention, thereby taking into account people’s vaccination intention at baseline.Methods. Using four subsamples of participants who were vaccinated at different time points (ntotal = 10,799) between December 2020 and June 2021, we used latent Change Modeling and Latent Growth Curve Modeling to examine the associations between initial levels and changes in vaccination motivation and vaccination intention. Results. Across subsamples, changes in vaccination intention were found to be qualified by changes in motivation. An increase in autonomous motivation was related to a positive shift in vaccination intention, while an increase in both controlled motivation and distrust-based amotivation was related to a negative shift in vaccination intention. Moreover, autonomous motivation predicted especially an increase in vaccination intention among those initially low in vaccination intention, whereas an increase in either controlled motivation or distrust-based amotivation especially predicted a decrease in vaccination intention among those initially high in vaccination intention . Conclusions. Findings suggest that a growing sense of ownership and a reduction in distrust is critical for individuals to develop a stronger intention to get vaccinated, particularly when people had initially low vaccination intentions. We discuss conceptual, methodological, and practical implications.

To explain why there is substantial heterogeneity in the degree to which adolescents suffer from psychologically controlling parenting, it is important to take into account adolescents' active contribution to the socialization processes and to their coping with controlling parenting in particular. This study aimed to examine whether adolescents' coping with controlling parenting (i.e., oppositional defiance, compulsive compliance, negotiation, and accommodation) moderated associations between psychologically controlling parenting, adolescents' experiences of psychological need frustration, and their internalizing and externalizing problems. A total of 161 adolescents (M age = 15.56 years; SD age = 1.14; 61.5% female) and either their mother or their father participated in 7-day diary study. As expected, accommodation played an adaptive role, thereby buffering within-person (daily) associations between psychologically controlling parenting, adolescents' need frustration, and subsequent problems. Unexpectedly, compulsive compliance played a similar adaptive role. Overall, the moderating effects of coping were rather limited, suggesting that adolescents' coping can alter the daily negative consequences associated with psychologically controlling parenting only to a certain extent.

Although it has been hypothesized that gifted students are at risk for adopting a fixed mindset, research revealed inconsistent results. We aimed to clarify this by differentiating between two operationalizations of giftedness (high cognitive ability and formal identification as gifted) and how these relate to students’ beliefs about intelligence and effort. Also, we examined the role of parental antecedents on students’ beliefs. Participants were 3,329 7th-grade students and their parents. Only being labeled as gifted was related to adopting a fixed mindset. Regarding parental antecedents, parents’ intelligence and effort beliefs were related to students’ corresponding beliefs. Further, parental feedback was associated with students’ beliefs, which was most pronounced when student-reports of feedback were used. In particular, person-oriented feedback related positively to a fixed mindset and negatively to students’ appreciation of the role of effort in academic performance, while process-oriented feedback showed the opposite pattern. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. ispartof: Gifted Child Quarterly vol:66 issue:3 pages:220-237 status: published

OBJECTIVE: Although intellectually gifted individuals are often portrayed as perfectionists, evidence for an association between cognitive ability and perfectionism is inconclusive. This study investigates the relations between cognitive ability and two distinct dimensions of perfectionism and addresses the role of parental antecedents of perfectionism in adolescents at different levels of cognitive ability. METHOD: In a community sample of 3,168 adolescents and their parents, cognitive ability was assessed and perfectionism levels and parenting practices were surveyed. RESULTS: Adolescents higher in cognitive ability reported higher levels of Personal Standards (i.e., setting ambitious objectives) but lower levels of Concern over Mistakes (i.e., worrying excessively about mistakes). Parental criticism, high parental expectations, and conditionally regarding parenting were associated positively with Concern over Mistakes, and high parental expectations were related positively to Personal Standards. These associations were generally independent of adolescents' cognitive ability. Parents of adolescents higher in cognitive ability relied less on parenting practices associated with the development of perfectionism. CONCLUSION: Cognitive ability is related to a higher pursuit of personal standards, yet does not constitute a risk factor for excessive concerns about mistakes. Parental antecedents were related similarly and in theoretically meaningful ways to adolescent perfectionism across different levels of cognitive ability. ispartof: JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY vol:89 issue:4 pages:652-671 ispartof: location:United States status: published

This study investigated the protective role of maternal adaptive emotion regulation in applying controlling parenting practices while assisting their toddler in completing two different problem-solving tasks. More specifically, the role of maternal emotion regulation was examined relative to significant situational (i.e., task difficulty) and child-related (i.e., toddlers’ temperamental negative affectivity) risk factors for controlling parenting. Results showed that (1) mothers’ integrative emotion regulation was negatively related to observed maternal control across tasks, (2) mothers were more controlling during a difficult task compared to an easy task, and (3) toddlers’ temperamental negative affectivity related positively to the use of observed maternal control, albeit only during a difficult task. These results highlight the relevance of maternal emotion regulation processes during parenting practices beyond contextual and temperamental correlates. Directions for future research and clinical implications are discussed.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the interplay between the personality vulnerability dimensions of self-criticism and dependency and experienced satisfaction or frustration of the basic psychological needs in relation to adolescents' depressive symptoms. In doing so, we investigated both indirect associations between personality and depressive symptoms (through need-based experiences) and interactions between personality and need-based experiences (i.e., moderation). METHOD: A total of 149 adolescents (52% female, Mage = 15.20 years at initial assessment, SD = 3.09) participated in this three-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. At each wave, adolescents reported on their personality, need-based experiences, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Multilevel analyses showed that dependency and self-criticism related to experiences of need frustration and depressive symptoms at both the between-person level (i.e., the level of interindividual differences) and the within-person level (i.e., the level of intraindividual change). In turn, need frustration was related to adolescents' depressive symptoms at both levels of analysis. Personality did not significantly moderate the associations between the psychological needs and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that self-criticism and dependency are related to experiences of psychological need frustration and depressive symptoms at the level of both interindividual differences and within person-change. ispartof: JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY vol:88 issue:6 pages:1145-1161 ispartof: location:United States status: published

This study investigated whether mothers’ own perceived parenting history (in their own family of origin) relates to mothers’ self-reported use of psychological control during the toddler period and whether mothers’ emotion regulation capacities play an important underlying role in this regard. A community sample of 150 primiparous mothers participated in a longitudinal study, including both a prenatal and postnatal assessment (2 years after birth). Results of structural equation modeling indicated that mothers’ own retrospectively perceived history of psychologically controlling parenting prior to childbirth related to their psychologically controlling parenting behavior vis-a-vis their toddlers. Mothers’ maladaptive emotional regulation, and dysregulation in particular, was found to play a mediating role in this association. The results highlight that mothers’ perceived parenting history is an important prenatal predictor of mothers’ own (self-reported) use of psychological control in the first years after childbirth, with maternal emotion regulation helping to account for this association.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a threat not only to individuals' physical health but also to their mental health. Self-Determination Theory assumes that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence promotes psychological well-being during destabilizing times. Yet, the pandemic seriously hampered individuals' opportunities to satisfy their needs. The current study provides a preliminary test of the effectiveness of a 7-session online program, LifeCraft, that promotes individuals' proactive attempts to uplift their need-based experiences (i.e., need crafting). Next to the effects on individuals' need crafting skills, we examined program-effects on adults' need-based experiences and mental health and we explored the role of participants' program engagement. An experimental study among 725 Belgian adults [

Because research has shown systematic associations between self-discrepancies and several psychological disorders, self-discrepancy is considered as a transdiagnostic factor in psychopathology. The current research contributes to the literature by testing both cross-sectionally and longitudinally the role of self-discrepancies in parental burnout, an exhaustion disorder in the parenting domain where standards are high and prescriptions numerous. In three studies (including a prospective one; N-1 = 109, N-2 = 1689, N-3 Third measurement time = 553 parents), we showed that self-discrepancies are strongly associated with parental burnout, and Study 3 showed that they even predict rank-order increases in such burnout. These results have implications for research on self-discrepancies, parental burnout and psychopathology more broadly.

Based on self-determination theory, this diary study examined associations between adolescents' daily need crafting and daily fluctuations in their need-based and affective experiences. We also examined the role of daily perceived autonomy-supportive parenting in adolescents' daily need-crafting. Adolescents (N = 159; M-age = 15.56; 62% female) filled out a diary for seven consecutive days. Multilevel path analyses indicated that need crafting varied on a day-to-day basis, with daily need crafting relating positively to daily positive affect and negatively to negative affect. The benefits of daily need crafting were accounted for by higher daily need satisfaction and lower need frustration. Further, on days adolescents perceived more parental autonomy support, they reported more need satisfaction and less need frustration, an effect that was partially due to higher need crafting that day. Overall, the results suggest that need crafting represents a critical pro-active skill, with resulting benefits for adolescents' daily need-based experiences and well-being.

Objective. Parental academic conditional regard is a socialization strategy in which parents’ displays of appreciation increase (conditional positive regard; PACPR) or decrease (conditional negative regard; PACNR) depending on the children’s academic achievement. Little is known about how adolescents perceive combinations of conditional positive and negative regard and how within-person combinations of them relate to developmental outcomes. Design. This study uses a person-oriented approach to examine within-person combinations of PACPR and PACNR and their different associations with individuals’ motivation and adjustment. Three different samples reported on perceived PACPR and PACNR: adolescent students (N = 3,891), university freshmen (N = 556), and parents (N = 760). We conducted confirmatory latent profile analyses and investigated associations between profiles and outcome measures (basic need satisfaction, self-esteem level and contingency, ability self-concept, achievement goal orientation, test anxiety, and depressive symptoms). Results. The results supported a 3-class solution in all samples: low (44.4%–61.4%) or high (14.5%–24.5%) on both, and only high on PACPR (14.1%–31.3%). Groups reporting overall high levels of conditional regard scored the least favorably on all outcomes. Individuals with only high scores on PACPR differed from those with overall low scores on conditional regard primarily in terms of higher contingent self-esteem. Conclusions. The two dimensions of conditional regard are distinct. Although combination of the two dimensions is associated with individuals’ general poor adjustment, the presence of PACPR alone is related to a fragile sense of self-esteem. Implications for future research are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic elicited a lot of concerns among citizens, thereby potentially compromising their well-being. This study sought to examine the role of individuals' emotion regulation styles (i.e., emotional dysregulation, emotional suppression, and emotional integration) in handling these concerns and their experiences of well-being (i.e., satisfaction with life and sleep quality) and ill-being (i.e., anxiety and depressive symptoms). The study had a unique 10-wave longitudinal design (N = 986; Mage = 41.28; 76% female) and was conducted during the outbreak of the pandemic in March–May 2020. Multilevel analyses showed, first, that weekly variation in COVID-19 related concerns related negatively to weekly variation in well-being and positively to weekly variation in ill-being. Second, at the between-person level, emotional dysregulation and suppression related positively to between-person vulnerability in ill-being and lower well-being (across all waves). Third, between-person differences in emotional dysregulation amplified the strength of the within-person association between concerns and depressive complaints and lowered life satisfaction. Unexpectedly, integrative emotion regulation amplified the strength of the within-person association between concerns and anxiety. The discussion focuses on the critical role of emotion regulation in handling the uncertainty elicited by the pandemic and provides directions for further research.

Although the COVID-19 crisis is a worldwide threat to individuals’ physical health and psychological well-being, not all people are equally susceptible to increased ill-being. One potentially important factor in individuals’ vulnerability (versus resilience) to ill- being in the face of stress is emotion regulation. On the basis of Self-Determination Theory, this study examined the role of three emotion regulation styles in individuals’ mental health during the COVID-19 crisis, that is, integration, suppression, and dysregulation. Participants were 6584 adults (77 % female, M age = 45.16 years) who filled out well-validated measures of emotion regulation, depression, anxiety, life satisfaction, and sleep quality. To examine naturally occurring combinations of emotion regulation strategies, hierarchical k-means clustering was performed, yielding 3 profiles: (a) low scores on all strategies (indicating rather low overall levels of worry; 27%), (b) high scores on integration only (41%), and (c) high scores on suppression and dysregulation (33%). Participants in the profiles scoring high on suppression and dysregulation displayed a less favorable pattern of outcomes (high ill-being, low life satisfaction, and poorer sleep quality) compared to the other two groups. Between- cluster differences remained significant even when taking into account the corona- related worries experienced by people. Overall, the findings underscore the important role of emotion regulation in individuals’ mental health during mentally challenging periods such as the COVID-19 crisis. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

This study used a longitudinal person-oriented approach to examine whether two distinct developmental pathways of maladaptive motivation could be distinguished among high-ability students (intelligence quotient [IQ] ≥ 120, N = 403, Mage = 12.2 years, 60.5% males), as proposed by the Pathways to Underachievement Model. Latent class growth analysis provided evidence for a three-class solution, including an adaptive class and two maladaptive classes, largely corresponding with the predictions of the Pathways to Underachievement Model. Furthermore, the classes related to the outcome variables in the expected ways, with the maladaptive classes showing higher disengagement and underachievement. These findings substantiate the Pathways to Underachievement Model and provide developmental insight into the multiple motivational pathways underlying disengagement and underachievement among high-ability students.

Although abundant research has demonstrated associations between psychologically controlling parenting and adolescent problem behavior, little is known about the moderating role of adolescent personality herein. This study examined whether adolescent personality moderates the associations between parental psychological control and internalizing and externalizing problems at the level of within-person change. A 3-wave longitudinal design (N = 198 families, Mage adolescent = 14.89 years, Mage mother = 45.14 years, Mage father = 46.79 years), with 1-year intervals between waves, and using multi-informant assessment was conducted. Multilevel analyses demonstrated that changes in parental psychological control related positively to changes in multi-informant scores of both internalizing and externalizing problems. Evidence for the moderating role of personality was found for only 1 out of 25 interactions in a variable-centered approach and for 2 out of 8 interactions in a person-centered approach. The interactions obtained indicated that a mature personality (i.e., higher scores on emotional stability or membership in a resilient profile in comparison to an overcontrolled profile) buffered against the detrimental effects of psychologically controlling parenting on problem behaviors. Overall, the number of interactions was limited, suggesting only a modest moderating effect of adolescent personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Ample research has demonstrated the benefits of basic autonomy supportive practices (e.g., perspective-taking, choice, minimizing-control) for adolescents’ psychosocial functioning. Herein, we posit that there is one additional autonomy supportive practice with specific importance for adolescents’ development: Reflective Authentic Inner Compass facilitation. This practice is posited to contribute to the formation of an Authentic Inner-Compass: An action-guiding schema, informing youth on what they truly value, need, and want, and consisting of two parts: (1) A foundation including authentic values, interests, and life-aspirations, and (2) Autonomous commitment to future-oriented goals and decisions, based on the foundation. A longitudinal study of 18–19 year-old Israeli adolescents showed that perceived Reflective Authentic Inner Compass Facilitation by instructors uniquely predicted (beyond Basic Autonomy Support) adolescents’ experience of having an authentic inner-compass in the military domain, which then predicted autonomous engagement in plan-promoting activities. A cross-sectional study with 16−18 year-old Belgian adolescents showed that perceived Reflective Authentic Inner Compass Facilitation by parents uniquely predicted (beyond Basic Autonomy Support) the experience of having an authentic inner-compass, which then related positively to well-being. Implications of the notion of the authentic inner compass for the conceptualization of autonomy support and the experience of autonomy are discussed.

Over the last few years, the protective role of parental monitoring on adolescent adjustment (i.e., active parental efforts aimed at setting limits and tracking adolescents’ activities and whereabouts) has been challenged. Recent research has shifted attention to the conditions under which monitoring may be more or less effective. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this study investigated the role of parents’ autonomy-supportive and psychologically controlling parenting in effects of parental monitoring on adolescents’ adjustment. It also considered the role of adolescents’ clinical status (i.e., clinically referred vs non-referred). Adopting a person-centered approach, we aimed to identify naturally occurring profiles of monitoring, autonomy-support, and psychological control and to examine differences between these profiles in terms of life satisfaction, positive affect, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Participants included 218 referred (Mage = 14.44, 56% girls) and 218 matched adolescents from a larger sample of 1056 community (Mage = 14.83, 52.9% girls). Multigroup Latent Profile Analyses revealed five parenting profiles which were structurally equivalent in both samples: high monitoring with either high autonomy support or high psychological control, low monitoring with either high autonomy-support or high psychological control, and an average profile. Referred youth were significantly more present in the average profile and in the profiles characterized by high levels of psychological control. As hypothesized, profiles showed a differential association with adolescents’ self-reported adjustment, with the high monitoring—high autonomy support profile yielding the most optimal and the low monitoring—high psychological control profile yielding the worst outcomes. Associations between profiles and outcomes were similar for referred and non-referred adolescents. These findings highlight the importance of considering the parenting climate (i.e., autonomy-supportive versus psychologically controlling) to understand effects of parental monitoring during adolescence.

Parents and adolescents may hold discrepant views about parents' behaviors, which may be related to adolescent maladjustment. The goal of the present investigation was to examine associations between overprotective parenting and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems and the frustration of their psychological needs (for autonomy, relatedness and competence), thereby considering both congruence and incongruence in adolescents' and mothers' reports of overprotective parenting. Our sample consisted of 402 mother-adolescent dyads (M adolescent age = 16.8 years, 63% female), who reported upon the mothers' overprotective parenting. In addition, adolescents filled out questionnaires assessing their internalizing and externalizing problems and psychological need frustration. Data were analyzed using polynomial regressions with response surface analysis. Results showed evidence for a linear, additive relationship between adolescents' and mothers' reports of overprotective parenting, and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms and relatedness and competence frustration. That is, higher scores in adolescents' and mothers' ratings of overprotective parenting were associated with more maladjustment and more need frustration. Moreover, results indicated that incongruence between adolescents' and mothers' reports related to more externalizing problems and more autonomy and relatedness frustration, and this was especially the case when adolescents perceived higher levels of overprotection than what was reported by mothers. These results underscore the importance of considering multiple perspectives when studying the dynamics involved in overprotective parenting.