Direction of Influence between Parenting Style and Parental Involvement in Schooling Practices, and Students' Autonomy: A Short-Term Longitudinal Design.

This study examined the reciprocal influence between parenting style and parental involvement in schooling practices and adolescent autonomy over a 2-year period. Participating in the study were 872 adolescents with a mean age of 14.5 years at Time 1 and attending 5 French-speaking public high schools in Quebec, Canada. From the initial cohort, 676 adolescents participated in the 1-year follow-up (Time 2). Data were collected by means of the student questionnaires regarding their parents' parenting style and involvement and their own level of autonomy. The findings lent support to the effects of parenting style and parental involvement practices on autonomy over time. There were significant increases in autonomy from Time 1 to Time 2, specifically in work orientation and self-reliance, in parental psychological autonomy granting, and in parent-adolescent communication; there were also drops in parental warmth and parent-school communication. Parental affective support, a dimension of parental involvement in school, was rather stable over the 2-year span. Significant path coefficients lent support to the possibility of longitudinal, bidirectional effects between parenting and parental involvement behaviors and adolescents' autonomy. Perceived parental warmth was both a correlate and a contributor to autonomy, with a more important contribution to autonomy at Time 2. Psychological autonomy granting presented the same pattern, with a less important contribution to autonomy at Time 2. Affective support and parent-adolescent communication were more a correlate of autonomy than a contributor to it. (Contains 36 references.) (KB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Direction of influence between parenting style and parental involvement in schooling practices, and studentsbautonomy: A short-term longitudinal design U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as Oo received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. ° Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Rollande Deslandes, Ph.D.' CRIRES Research Center Universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres Quebec, Canada, G9A 5H7 RollandeDeslandes@uqtr.uquebec. ca http//:www.uqtr.uquebec.ca/deslande 1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY \kco,Arvci Le. 5X0kAmiles_ TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 10 th Annual International Roundtable on School, Family, and Community Partnerships, AERA 2000 annual meeting program of the Family-School-Community Partnership SIG April 2000, New Orleans, Louisiana ABSTRACT The current paper investigates the reciprocal influence between parental behaviors and adolescents development. The study shows increases mainly in adolescents' autonomy and more importantly, in adolescents' work orientation and self-reliance as well as in parental psychological autonomy granting, and decreases mainly in parent-school communication over a two-year period. Findings lend support to the effects of parenting style and parental involvement practices on students autonomy over time. At this point, the results of this study suggest that parents, through their warmth, autonomy support and affective support in schooling play an important role in the development of adolescents autonomy. At the same time, significant path coefficients lend support to the possibility of longitudinal, bidirectional effects between parenting and parental involvement behaviors and adolescents' autonomy. INTRODUCTION To acquire a greater sense of autonomy is the quintessential developmental task of the adolescent period (Eccles et al., 1997). Using a psychosocial perspective of autonomy, some researchers have found that adolescents autonomy is related to school achievement (e.g., Deslandes & Potvin, 1999; Greenberger, 1982; Lamborn et al., 1991; Linver & Silverberg, 1997; Steinberg, Elmen & Mounts, 1989). Age differences in autonomy and more particularly, in self-reliance and work-orientation, two aspects of autonomy, favor older adolescents over younger ones (Greenberger, 1984; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). The current paper investigates the reciprocal influence between parental behaviors and adolescents development. The study shows increases mainly in adolescents' autonomy and more importantly, in adolescents' work orientation and self-reliance as well as in parental psychological autonomy granting, and decreases mainly in parent-school communication over a two-year period. Findings lend support to the effects of parenting style and parental involvement practices on students autonomy over time. At this point, the results of this study suggest that parents, through their warmth, autonomy support and affective support in schooling play an important role in the development of adolescents autonomy. At the same time, significant path coefficients lend support to the possibility of longitudinal, bidirectional effects between parenting and parental involvement behaviors and adolescents' autonomy. INTRODUCTION To acquire a greater sense of autonomy is the quintessential developmental task of the adolescent period (Eccles et al., 1997). Using a psychosocial perspective of autonomy, some researchers have found that adolescents autonomy is related to school achievement (e.g., Deslandes & Potvin, 1999; Greenberger, 1982; Lamborn et al., 1991; Linver & Silverberg, 1997; Steinberg, Elmen & Mounts, 1989). Age differences in autonomy and more particularly, in self-reliance and work-orientation, two aspects of autonomy, favor older adolescents over younger ones (Greenberger, 1984; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). I The author wishes to thank Dr. Danielle Leclerc, Departernent de psychoeducation, UQTR, for her support in the statistical analyses. BEST COPY AVARABLE 2 A recent study conducted in the province of Quebec (Deslandes, 1998-2001) has suggested higher scores of autonomy associated with higher scores of parental warmth and psychological autonomy granting, two parenting style practices. Findings also indicated that more parental affective support and more frequent parent-adolescent communications, two parental involvement practices, predict adolescents autonomy. In contrast, more parentadolescent daily interactions based on school matters predicted lower autonomy scores (Deslandes & Potvin, 1999; Deslandes, Potvin & Leclerc, in press). In general, research results have shown that youngsters at higher grade levels report lower scores on measures of parental demandingness and responsiveness than youngsters at lower grades. They also reported lower levels of parental involvement in schooling (Linver & Silverberg, 1997; Mantzicopoulos & Oh-Hwang, 1998; Paulson & Sputa, 1996; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). Lee (1994), with data that came from 17,424 adolescents, found that compared to middle grades parents, high school parents are fewer to maintain communication with their adolescents and their adolescents' teachers, to attend a school event, to get involved in learning activities at home, to discuss about school and to attend a school meeting. However, there is relatively less decline in family discussion about school programs or courses from middle grades to high school. With regard to the direction of effects between parenting style practices and adolescents autonomy (Bell, 1968, 1974; Belsky, 1984, Bugental & Goodnow, 1998), study results are not clear cut. For instance, Steinberg et al. (1989) reported that adolescents autonomy is likely to evoke parental warmth rather than the reverse whereas Steinberg et al. (1994) suggested that parenting style practices precede rather than simply follow from adolescent autonomy. At the same time, some authors proposed that student development might influence the types of parental involvement practices (Deslandes, 2000; Connors & Epstein, 1995; Epstein, 1996). Longitudinal studies are necessary to determine if differences in autonomy modulate the nature of parental practices required to foster school achievement. Apparently neither of the mentioned research groups examined simultaneously parenting style and parental involvement practices in relation to adolescents autonomy in a longitudinal study spanning more than 1 academic year. OBJECTIVES The first purpose of the study what to what examine changes in autonomy scores and in parenting style and parental involvement practices within a two-year period. The second one was to determine the direction of causality between parenting and parental involvement