A Critical Look at Parenting Research: An Examination and Contextualisation of Autonomy Supportive and Psychologically Controlling Parenting

xix Abstract Parenting is critical to the healthy development of young people and has lifelong effects on important life outcomes (e.g., well-being, education, identity development). We already know a lot about parenting styles such as autonomy support and psychological control, and their importance in adolescents’ development, education, and well-being. Yet there are several outstanding questions about these parenting styles specifically – and parenting research in general – that must be addressed for the field to progress. This thesis investigated these unanswered questions: a) whether autonomy supportive and psychologically controlling parenting should be treated as two distinct constructs or two opposing sides of a single continuum; b) whether it is important to distinguish between report types (e.g., youth’s perception or parents’ perception of parenting) or report targets (e.g., maternal or paternal parenting) when measuring parenting; and c) how does context and developmental stage moderate the effects of parenting. Study 1 is a meta-analysis that investigated the relationship between autonomy supportive and psychologically controlling parenting (k = 50; #ES = 83; N = 31,979). The studyParenting is critical to the healthy development of young people and has lifelong effects on important life outcomes (e.g., well-being, education, identity development). We already know a lot about parenting styles such as autonomy support and psychological control, and their importance in adolescents’ development, education, and well-being. Yet there are several outstanding questions about these parenting styles specifically – and parenting research in general – that must be addressed for the field to progress. This thesis investigated these unanswered questions: a) whether autonomy supportive and psychologically controlling parenting should be treated as two distinct constructs or two opposing sides of a single continuum; b) whether it is important to distinguish between report types (e.g., youth’s perception or parents’ perception of parenting) or report targets (e.g., maternal or paternal parenting) when measuring parenting; and c) how does context and developmental stage moderate the effects of parenting. Study 1 is a meta-analysis that investigated the relationship between autonomy supportive and psychologically controlling parenting (k = 50; #ES = 83; N = 31,979). The study considered whether variance in this relationship is moderated by developmental stage of the participants and varying approaches to measure parenting (i.e., report type and target). Study 2 is an empirical study that tested whether parenting responses are consistent regardless of variations in approaches to measurement. The study also considered whether parenting predicted welland ill-being outcomes similarly across different measurement approaches. This was explored with a Finnish sample of adolescents (N = 214) and their parents (mothers, N = 142; fathers, N = 90) for the parenting styles autonomy support and psychological control. Study 3 expanded on Study 1 and 2 to test how maternal and paternal autonomy supportive parenting affects youth’s welland ill-being. This empirical study used