J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869
DOI 10.1007/s10964-009-9451-7

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

Parental Autonomy-Support, Intrinsic Life Goals, and Well-Being
Among Adolescents in China and North America
Natasha Lekes Æ Isabelle Gingras ÆFrederick L. Philippe Æ Richard Koestner ÆJianqun Fang

Received: 1 June 2009 / Accepted: 3 September 2009 / Published online: 22 September 2009Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Abstract Self-determination theory proposes that prioritizing intrinsic life goals, such as community involvement,is related to well-being, whereas focusing on extrinsic life
goals, such as financial success, is associated with lower
well-being and that parenting influences the type of life
goals that youth adopt. In a sample of 515 Chinese (56%female, mean age = 15.50) and 567 North American (52%male, mean age = 14.17) adolescents, a model of therelationships between parenting, life goals, and well-being
was investigated and confirmed for intrinsic life goals.
Across societies, autonomy-supportive parenting was
associated with the endorsement of intrinsic life goals,
which in turn was associated with well-being. Intrinsic life
goals partially mediated the relationship between parental
autonomy-support and well-being. These findings suggest
that, cross-culturally, prioritizing intrinsic life goals is
related to increased well-being among adolescents and thatparents could encourage intrinsic life goals by being supportive of their children’s autonomy.
Keywords Life goals  Self-determination theory 
Well-being  Parenting  Autonomy-support  Adolescence

N. Lekes (&)  I. Gingras  F. L. Philippe  R. Koestner
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal,
Canadae-mail: natasha.lekes@mail.mcgill.ca
J. Fang
Psychosomatic Medicine Department, Ningxia Medical College,
Yinchuan, China

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Introduction
Piaget (1967) described adolescents as philosophers trying to
make meaning of life and discover their place in the world.
Adolescence is a key developmental period for forming life
goals, which concern the objectives that individuals consciously form to direct their lives over time (Schmuck and
Sheldon 2001). Self-determination theorists have distinguished these life goals as either intrinsic or extrinsic.
Intrinsic life goals, such as satisfying relationships, personal
growth, and community contribution, are thought to be
inherently satisfying and to be congruent with the psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence(Ryan and Deci 2000). Extrinsic life goals, such as fame,attractiveness, and wealth depend on the contingent reactionof others and are typically engaged in as a means to an end(Kasser 2002a). According to self-determination theory, theneeds for autonomy, competence and relatedness must be
satisfied for individuals to experience healthy growth anddevelopment. Individuals who put more emphasis on
intrinsic rather than extrinsic life goals are likely to benefit
from enhanced psychological health and well-being.
Researchers have demonstrated that striving for intrinsic
life goals is related to greater well-being, whereas prioritizing extrinsic life goals is related to poorer well-being(see Kasser and Ryan 1993, 1996; Kim et al. 2003; Ryanet al. 1999 for examples). This work has been conductedprimarily with adults (see Williams et al. 2000; Cohen and
Cohen 1996 for exceptions). However, adolescence is an
important stage for understanding the development of life
goals. Therefore, the objectives of the present investigation
were to examine the relationship between adolescent life
goals and well-being and the role of parental autonomysupport in the development of intrinsic versus extrinsic life
goals among a large North American and Chinese sample.

J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869

The Emphasis on Extrinsic over Intrinsic Life Goals
In the past, adolescents relied largely on cultural traditions informing their life goals, whereas modern life presents themwith a plethora of choices and responsibilities (Schwartz
2000). Many life goals celebrated in popular culture arematerialistic or extrinsic in nature. The widespread prevalence of extrinsic life goals is evident in two recent surveys ofyoung people in the United States. According to a sample of
18–25 year-olds, getting rich is their generation’s mostimportant goal, followed by becoming famous (Pew
Research Center 2007). Young people ranked these goals
above more intrinsic goals such as helping people who need
help, being community leaders, and spirituality. Similarly, ina survey conducted by UCLA and the American Council on
Education, being very well-off financially was the topranked goal, among 19 goals (Myers 2000). College participants ranked wealth above being an authority in one’s field,
helping others in difficulty, and raising a family. The rise in
extrinsic life goals was evident in the ratio of students statingthat a very important reason for their going to college was toearn more money, which increased from one in two in 1971
to three in four in 1998 (Astin et al. 1987; Sax et al. 1998).
The increase in striving to be financially well-off was pairedwith a corresponding decrease in striving to develop ameaningful philosophy of life. Across two large surveys,
young people have indicated that they tend to value extrinsic
life goals, such as wealth, above intrinsic life goals such ascommunity, helping others, and self-growth.
Life Goals, Well-Being, and Culture
At the same time that the pursuit of extrinsic life goals is sohighly endorsed, most Americans value being happy as animportant part of life and the pursuit of happiness has
increasingly become global (Diener et al. 1995). However,researchers have shown that focusing on extrinsic life goals,
such as wealth, is associated with poorer well-being, as
measured by self-report and clinical interviews of individuals’ vitality, depression, anxiety, social functioning, andphysical ailments, while valuing intrinsic life goals, such ascommunity involvement, is related to enhanced well-being(Kasser and Ryan 1993, 1996). These findings have been
replicated in different nations, including Russia (Ryan et al.
1999), Germany (Schmuck et al. 2000), and Korea (Kimet al. 2003). Although there is evidence that females rate
intrinsic life goals higher than males (Kasser and Ryan
1993), the differential association of intrinsic and extrinsic
life goals with well-being indicators appears to be consistentacross gender. Researchers have further shown that income
level within US samples is not associated with life goals(Kasser and Ryan 1996). Paradoxically, the pursuit of happiness through extrinsic life goals is highly valued, yet across859

culture, gender, and income levels, striving for intrinsic
rather than extrinsic life goals is associated with well-being.
More recently, researchers examined life goals among
over 1,800 undergraduate students in 15 countries (Grouzet
et al. 2005). In line with the work of Schwartz et al. (2001) on
universally recognized human values, intrinsic and extrinsic
goals emerged as basic goals across nations. Life goals
formed a circumplex model, in which a focus on extrinsic
goals opposed focusing on intrinsic goals. That is, striving
for financial success, an attractive image, and being popular
opposed goals for community feeling (improving the world),
affiliation, and self-acceptance. The circumplex model ofgoal contents held in both wealthier and poorer countries,
although there were some cross-cultural differences. For
example, in poorer countries, striving for financial successtended to fall less with the extrinsic goals and more withsafety and physical health goals. This finding is in line withthe work of other researchers who have found that once
human beings have had their basic needs met there is no clear
relation between wealth and happiness (Diener and BiswasDiener 2002; Kasser 2002a; Myers and Diener 1996). The
research by Grouzet et al. (2005) confirms the relevance of
the intrinsic/extrinsic distinction in life goals across 15
countries, including China, Canada, and the US.
Adolescence is such a critical developmental period
because the life goals and behaviours that individuals adopt
have long-term consequences for their well-being. In studiesof American adolescents, researchers have found that prioritizing extrinsic over intrinsic life goals is associated withrisky health behaviours, such as tobacco and alcohol use(Williams et al. 2000) and prospectively associated with
DSM-III-R Axis I and Axis II mental disorders (Cohen and
Cohen 1996). Despite their association with decreased wellbeing, youth may be particularly drawn to extrinsic life
goals, such as image and wealth, because they are promoted
by popular culture and accepted by their peers. Media outlets
increasingly target adolescents as their audience (Brown andWitherspoon 2002) and with increasing globalization, children all over the world are exposed to the commercial
interests of multinational corporations (Kanner 2005). A
pivotal point in the development of life goals occurs among
adolescents because they are finding their direction in lifeand forming an identity, choices that have implications fortheir health and well-being.
Life Goals and Parental Autonomy-Support
Given that life goals are related to mental and physicalhealth, it is vital to understand their development. Besides
peer and media influences, an important factor is thesocialization of young people by their parents (Grusec andGoodnow 1994). Autonomy-support, a practice whereby
parents encourage a child’s initiative, offer choices, respond

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to a child’s needs, provide a rationale for rules, andacknowledge a child’s perspective, has been linked to several
positive outcomes (Joussemet et al. 2008). Through longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of North-American
samples, researchers have demonstrated that parental
autonomy-support is associated with children’s enhanced
academic and social adjustment (Joussemet et al. 2005),
school achievement (Grolnick and Ryan 1989), andsmoother school transitions (Ratelle et al. 2004, 2005).
Parental autonomy-support is therefore an important factor
in the socialization and development of children andadolescents.
Important to the present investigation, researchers havealso examined the effect of parental autonomy-support in
China. In a 6-month longitudinal study, parental autonomysupport predicted increased emotional well-being andacademic functioning among both Chinese and American
seventh-graders, with stronger effects for the United Statessample (Wang et al. 2007). Similarly, a composite scale ofparental autonomy-support versus psychological control
predicted well-being and autonomous motivation forstudying among Chinese students (Vansteenkiste et al.
2005). These studies demonstrate the relevance of parental
autonomy-support in China, where it has beneficial effects
for young peoples’ well-being and academic success.
Although parental autonomy-support has been linked toemotional and academic functioning among Chinese youth,
researchers have not examined its relationship to the life
goals of Chinese adolescents. Investigators in the UnitedStates have demonstrated that 18 year-olds whose mothers
are less autonomy-supportive and more controlling (by bothadolescent and mother self-report) are more likely to endorse
financial success as a life goal (Kasser et al. 1995). Similarly,
American high school students who rate their parenting
environments as less autonomy-supportive are less likely toendorse intrinsic life goals such as meaningful relationships
and personal growth relative to extrinsic life goals forfinancial success, fame, and attractiveness (Williams et al.
2000). Researchers have further shown that controllingparenting, often viewed as the opposite of autonomy-support, is linked to greater extrinsic life goals (Cohen and
Cohen 1996) and fewer intrinsic life goals (Kasser et al.
2002). Thus within North American samples, parenting thatis more autonomy-supportive and less controlling is associated with adolescents’ striving for intrinsic over extrinsic life
goals yet researchers have not investigated whether thisrelationship also holds in other societies, such as China.

Hypotheses
Based on self-determination theory and previous researchfindings, we have three main hypotheses. First, we expect

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to replicate previous findings that have linked types of life
goals and well-being and extend them to a cross-cultural
sample of adolescents. We predict that valuing intrinsic life
goals will be associated with greater well-being, while
prioritizing extrinsic life goals will be related to lower
well-being among adolescents across two different societies. Secondly, we will extend research on the developmentof life goals to a cross-cultural sample. Studies in the US
have shown that parental autonomy-support is related tothe types of life goals that adolescents develop and studies
in China have indicated some positive outcomes arisingfrom autonomy-supportive parenting. We expect that parenting practices that support a child’s autonomy will be
related to greater endorsement of intrinsic life goals andless emphasis on extrinsic life goals in both China andNorth America. Finally, according to self-determination
theory, societies may vary in the extent to which they value
certain life goals, but the way that these goals impact on
well-being will be similar because they are based in thesatisfaction of universal psychological needs. We therefore
expect that the pattern of relationships between parental
autonomy-support, life goals, and well-being will be similar in North America and China.

MethodParticipants
The North American sample was made up of 567 adolescents in Canada and the United States. In Canada, two
French-speaking private high schools in Montreal, Quebec
were recruited to participate in the study. Public schools
could not be recruited due to a strike at the time of our datacollection. There were a total of 248 students from Canada:
44 12 year-olds, 53 13 year-olds, 47 14 year-olds, 55
15 year-olds, 41 16 year-olds, and 8 17 year-olds. In the
United States, two Californian schools were recruited, ajunior high school in Menlo Park and a senior high schoolin Palo Alto. There were a total of 319 students from the
US: 28 12 year-olds, 56 13 year-olds, 108 14 year-olds, 76
15 year-olds, 40 16 year-olds, and 11 17 year-olds. The
mean age of the North American samples was 14.17. In
China, three high schools were recruited by a colleague atthe Medical College of Ningxia, who also served as atranslator for the project. The schools are located in
Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia. There were a total of 515
students from China: 4 12 year-olds, 71 13 year-olds, 73
14 year-olds, 48 15 year-olds, 153 16 year-olds, and 156
17 year-olds. The mean age of the Chinese sample was
15.50. There was a good balance of male and female students in all three countries: In Canada, 121 girls and 127
boys; in the US, 153 girls and 166 boys; and in China, 289

J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869

girls and 226 boys. The Chinese sample was 56% female
and the North American samples were 52% male.
All North American participants were asked to indicate
which language they spoke at home. Ninety-six percent of
the Canadian participants indicated French. Seventy-eightpercent of the US participants indicated that they spoke
English at home. The most common other languages were
Spanish, Mandarin, and German. Ninety-eight percent ofChinese participants indicated that they spoke Mandarin at
home. Chinese participants were also asked to provide theirethnicity and 97% indicated Han. Unfortunately we did nothave exact information about the ethnicity or racial background of the North American sample although we estimate that over 95% of the Canadian sample and over 70%of the US sample was Caucasian.
ProceduresOnce the schools were recruited, the purpose and procedures for the study were explained to the principals at eachschool. After their questions were answered, the principals
signed a consent form for their schools to participate. In the
US and Canada, the principals chose a range of classes toparticipate in the study. In China, the study collaborator
chose classes that were at comparable levels to those that
had been selected in North America. School visits werescheduled and questionnaires were completed during classtime. Students participated voluntarily and confidentially.
Researchers distributed the questionnaires, described thestudy, explained the scientific process, and assured participants that their answers were confidential. Students were
provided 40 min to respond to the questions and over 90%
of students completed the questionnaires.
All questionnaires were originally in English. For thecollection of data in Canada, questionnaires were translated
into Quebecois-French by a study researcher. A researcher
independent to the study then verified the translation. For
the collection of data in China, a bilingual master’s student
in Montreal translated the original English questionnaires
into Mandarin and the Chinese study collaborator verified
the translation. To ensure that the measures were meaningful in Yinchuan, China, the Chinese collaborator madechanges to the questionnaires based on the regional dialect.
Measures
Autonomy-Support
The Perception of Autonomy Support Scale (Robbins1994), a 9-item scale, was used to measure the degree towhich adolescents report that their autonomy is supportedby their parents. The participant rates on a scale of 1 (not at
all true) to 5 (very much true) the extent to which each861

statement applies to them. For example, ‘‘my parents listen
to my opinion or perspective when I’ve got a problem,’’‘‘my parents aren’t very sensitive to my needs (reverse
item)’’. To obtain the overall score, a mean of the 9 items is
calculated, and a higher score indicates a greater perceptionthat the child’s autonomy is supported by the parent.
The internal reliabilities for the measure of parental
autonomy-support was quite high in the North American
samples, a’s [ .85, but it was only modest for the Chinese
sample, a = .60. An examination of the item-total scalecorrelations in the Chinese sample revealed two items that,
unexpectedly, had significant negative loading—‘‘My
parents try to tell me how to run my life (reversed)’’ and‘‘My parents help me to choose my own direction.’’Because of the apparent problem in translating these items
into Chinese, we reduced the autonomy-support scale to theremaining seven items. The seven-item scale had a reliability of .79 in the Chinese sample, and .88 and .85 in the
US and Canadian samples respectively.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Life Goals
The Life Aspiration Index (Kasser and Ryan 1996) wasused to measure participants’ intrinsic and extrinsic life
goals. Participants were asked to rate the importance of 14
long-term life goals or aspirations on a scale of 1 (not atall) to 5 (very much). Intrinsic goals included: ‘‘to havecommitted, intimate relationships’’; ‘‘to work for the betterment of society’’; and ‘‘to grow and learn new things’’.
Extrinsic goals included: ‘‘to have your name appear frequently in the media’’; ‘‘to have enough money to buy
everything you want’’; and ‘‘to have an image that others
find appealing’’. Acceptable internal reliabilities of a [ .75were obtained in the North American and Chinese samples.
Well-Being
Well-being was measured through positive and negative
affect and self-concept. On the Positive and Negative
Affect Scale (Emmons 1992), respondents indicated theextent to which they felt a series of emotions over the past
4 days: four positive feelings (joyful, enjoyment/fun,pleased, happy) and six negative feelings (unhappy, worried/anxious, depressed, angry/hostile, frustrated, stressed)from 1 (slightly or not at all) to 5 (extremely). Means for
positive and negative affect were calculated separately andthen standardized. Positive affect and negative affect werehighly negatively related, r = -.36. An index of affectused in the analyses was calculated by subtracting standardized negative affect from standardized positive affect.
On Anderman’s (2002) self-concept scale, respondents
rated the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with six
statements about themselves (‘‘I have a lot to be proud of,’’

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J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869‘‘I like myself just the way I am,’’ ‘‘I feel loved andwanted,’’ ‘‘I feel socially accepted,’’ ‘‘I feel like I am doing
most things right,’’ ‘‘I have a lot of good qualities.’’).
Statements were rated on a five-point scale from 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). To obtain a global
score, the mean of the six items was calculated.
Acceptable internal reliabilities of a [ .75 were obtainedin the North American and Chinese samples for the measuresof self-concept, positive affect, and negative affect. A global
index of well-being was calculated as the mean of the standardized scores for positive and negative affect valence andself-concept. The creation of a global index was usedbecause of the high positive correlation between affect andself concept (r = .47), and because our predictions wereframed in terms of general well-being.

Results
Preliminary Analyses
A 2 9 2 9 3 Multiple Analysis of Variance was performed
with gender, age, and country as between subject variables
and parental autonomy-support, intrinsic life goals, extrinsic
life goals, and global well-being as the dependent variables.
This analysis revealed significant effects for country on all
four measures: autonomy-support, F(2, 1,015) = 29.21,
p \ .001; intrinsic life goals, F(2, 1,015) = 4.06, p \ .05;
extrinsic life goals, F(2, 1,015) = 5.67, p \ .01; and wellbeing, F(2, 1,015) = 31.50, p \ .001. Table 1 presents themeans and standard deviations for participants in the three
countries. Consistent with previous research, the US andCanadian samples scored higher than the Chinese sample on
autonomy support (Chirkov and Ryan 2001), intrinsic life
goals (Kim et al. 2003), and well-being (Markus andKitayama 1991). Canadian and US youth did not differ significantly from each other on any of these three variables. A
different pattern emerged for extrinsic life goals, however,with the Canadian sample scoring significantly lower thanthe US and Chinese samples, which did not differ from eachother.
The MANOVA also revealed significant gender effects
for intrinsic life goals, F(1, 1,015) = 4.40, p \ .05, and forwell being, F(1, 1,015) = 7.33, p \ .001. Consistent with
Table 1 Means and standard deviations (in parentheses) for study
variables in the three countries
China

US

CanadaParental autonomy-support

2.84 (0.65)

3.22 (0.86)

3.28 (0.79)

Intrinsic life goals

3.96 (0.69)

4.20 (0.65)

4.07 (0.60)

Extrinsic life goals

3.33 (0.87)

3.32 (0.84)

2.95 (0.91)

Well-being

3.27 (0.57)

3.74 (0.66)

3.83 (0.60)

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previous research, females reported greater intrinsic life
goals (Kasser and Ryan 1993) and lower well-being (Kimet al. 2003) compared to males. There were no other significant effects involving gender or age and there were no
significant interaction effects.
Because the US and Canadian samples were quite similar on the majority of measures, we combine these two
samples (labelled henceforth ‘‘North American’’) for all
subsequent analyses. The correlations among the four
variables in our study were also highly similar between the
US and Canadian samples. Specifically, the following
correlations were obtained for the US and Canadian samples respectively: autonomy-support and intrinsic goals,
r’s = .20 and .17; autonomy-support and extrinsic goals,
r’s = -.20 and -.11; autonomy-support and well-being,r’s = .37 and .43; intrinsic and extrinsic goals, r’s = .22
and .13; intrinsic goals and well-being, r’s = .23 and .16;
extrinsic goals and well-being, r’s = -.05 and .00. Noneof the differences in these correlations between the two
samples approached significance (p’s [ .20).
Table 2 presents the correlations among the variables
separately by society. The correlations above the diagonal
are those obtained in the Chinese sample and those below
the diagonal are those obtained for the North American
sample. It can be seen that parental autonomy-support wassignificantly associated with intrinsic life goals and wellbeing, and that this was equally true for Chinese and North
American adolescents. Table 2 also shows that intrinsic life
goals were significantly positively associated with wellbeing and that this was equally true for Chinese and North
American adolescents.
Extrinsic goals were unrelated to well-being among both
North American and Chinese youth, and their relation toother variables appeared to vary somewhat by society.
Although extrinsic life goals were negatively related toparental autonomy-support in both societies, this relation
was significant only for North American participants.
Notably, the correlation between extrinsic life goals andintrinsic life goals was different in the Chinese (r = .52) andNorth American samples (r = .21). In the subsequent analyses, we control for the covariance between intrinsic andextrinsic life goals.
Main Analyses
The central goals of the present study were (1) to examine
the relationship between type of life goals (intrinsic versus
extrinsic) and well-being and (2) to assess the associationof parental autonomy-support and life goals among adolescent samples in North America and China. To this end,
we tested a model whereby parental autonomy-support
would be related to life goals, which in turn would be
associated with well-being. It was expected that life goals

J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869

863

Table 2 Correlations among variables for Chinese and north American adolescents

Autonomy support

Autonomy support

Intrinsic life goals

Extrinsic life goals

Well-being

–

.13**

-.04

.36***

Intrinsic life goals.18***

Extrinsic life goals-.16***.21***–.13**.43***.19***-.05–

Well-being–.52***.26***

Correlations above the diagonal are for the Chinese sample and correlations below the diagonal are for the North American sample*** p \ .001; ** p \ .01

would act as a mediator between autonomy-support andwell-being. We expected the relationships to hold in bothsocieties after controlling for gender and age. To examine
this model, a structural equation model was conducted in
LISREL 8 (Jöreskog and Sörbom 2003) with Robust
Maximum Likelihood as the method of estimation.
Observed variables were computed using random item
parceling for each construct (Bandalos 2002). Autonomysupport, age, and gender were modelled as exogenous
variables, while intrinsic and extrinsic life goals and wellbeing were endogenous variables. In addition, paths weredrawn from age and gender to all endogenous variables tocontrol for their effect and the covariance between intrinsic
and extrinsic life goals was freely estimated.
Testing this model revealed adequate fit indices in the
North American, Satorra–Bentler v2 (df = 51, n = 567) =128.87, p \ .001, NC = 2.53, NFI = .96, CFI = .98,
RMSEA = .052 [.041; .063], GFI = .96, SRMR = .047,
as well as in the Chinese sample, Satorra–Bentler v2(df = 51, n = 515) = 155.29, p \ .001, NC = 3.04,
NFI = .91, CFI = .94, RMSEA = .063 [.052; .075],
GFI = .95, SRMR = .054. Adequate factor loadings werealso obtained for each construct, except for one indicator ofwell-being in the Chinese sample—negative emotions—which was below .40. However, the other indicators ofwell-being were high in this sample, thus indicating sufficient variance for this construct in the Chinese sample.
Figure 1 shows the results of the model for each sample.
As expected, in both the North American and Chinese
samples, parental autonomy-support was positively associated with intrinsic life goals, which were in turn positively associated with well-being. In the North American
sample, autonomy-support was negatively related to
extrinsic life goals, which were unrelated to well-being,
whereas in the Chinese sample autonomy-support was
unrelated to extrinsic life goals and not significantly associated to well-being. Our hypotheses were thus supported
in terms of intrinsic, but not extrinsic life goals.
In sum, the model in which parental autonomy-support
was linked to intrinsic life goals which were in turn
related to well-being appeared to hold in both the North
American and Chinese samples. In addition, in both

samples, there was a significant direct path between
autonomy-support and well-being. Sobel tests and biascorrected bootstrapped estimates indicated that there wasa significant indirect effect from autonomy-support towell-being in both the North American (z = 2.50,
p \ .05, [.033; .159]) and the Chinese samples (z = 2.00,
p \ .05, [.026; .102]), thus suggesting partial mediationof intrinsic life goals between autonomy-support andwell-being.
Alternative models were then tested to evaluate theadequacy of the hypothesized model. Because partial
mediation was hypothesized, all variables are predicted by
all other variables (e.g., each modelled variable has a direct
path from all the other variables included in the model) andthus, all possible alternative models (e.g., autonomy-support ? well-being ? life goals) become equivalent models with equal fit indices. Therefore, we examined ifalternative models including full mediation (no direct
effect) would better fit the data than our hypothesizedpartial mediation model (i.e., autonomy-support ? wellbeing ? life goals, with no direct path from autonomy
support to life goals). Compared to the hypothesizedmodel, the AIC values of all possible alternative nonhierarchical models were higher than the hypothesizedmodel. Therefore, the hypothesized model—with the lowest AIC value—should be preferred (Kline 2005).
In line with recent methods to test moderation in structural equation modelling with a natural categorical variable(e.g., Rigdon et al. 1998) the two models (North American
and Chinese) were compared with each other for differencesin their path coefficients. When all paths were freely estimated, the baseline model was v2 (df = 102, n = 1,082) =284.17. All path coefficients were thus constrained to equal
those of the other sample. The fit for this model was(df = 113, n = 1,082) = 326.49. The difference between
the baseline and this constrained model was significant,Dv2 = 42.32(11), p \ .01, suggesting that all paths were
not equal across samples. Each path was examined separately with an equality constraint across samples. Table 3
shows the resulting Dv2 between the baseline model and themodel with each specific path constrained to be equal acrossthe two samples. Results revealed that the path from

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Fig. 1 Structural equation
models for autonomy-support,
life goals, and well-being,
controlling for age and gender,
for the North American andChinese Samples. Nonsignificant paths from thecontrolled variables have been
deleted for clarity

J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869
North American Sample
Intrinsic2

Intrinsic1

.85

.73
GenderGender(Male = 1)

1

Intrinsic
Goals-.19**

SelfConcept1
.22**

.14**
Age

.89

Age

1

.20**

SelfConcept2
.81

-.09*
Well-Being

Auto1

.43**

.92

.01
Autonomy
SupportAuto2-.16**

Extrinsic
Goals

.83
.84

-.49

Positive
Emotions

Negative
Emotions

SelfConcept1

SelfConcept2

.91

.82

Auto3

.89

Extrinsic1

Extrinsic2

Chinese Sample
Intrinsic1

Intrinsic2.95.55
GenderGender(Male = 1)

1

Intrinsic
Goals

.23**

.16**
Age

1

.67

Age

.66

.16**
Well-Being
Auto1

.40**

.78

.12
Autonomy
Support

Auto2

.01

Extrinsic
Goals

.66
.57

.40
Auto3

autonomy support to extrinsic life goals and the path fromgender to intrinsic life goals differed across samples. These
results thus suggest moderation by society in the relationship between parental autonomy-support and extrinsic life
goals in such a way that among North American adolescents, parental autonomy-support is negatively associatedwith extrinsic life goals, whereas in Chinese adolescents,
parental autonomy-support is unrelated to extrinsic life
goals. In addition, female North American adolescentstended to have higher intrinsic life goals compared to males,
whereas there was no gender difference with respect tointrinsic life goals in Chinese adolescents.

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Extrinsic1.63
Positive
Emotions-.28
Negative
Emotions.97

Extrinsic2

Discussion
The present study was designed to examine intrinsic andextrinsic life goals at a key, but understudied, developmental stage. Adolescence, a period when individuals
adopt new social roles and develop personal goals, provides an opportunity to examine life goals as they aredeveloping. In North America, as adolescents move into
adulthood, they increasingly tend to favor extrinsic overintrinsic goals and values (Myers 2000; Pew ResearchCenter 2007). This is not surprising given that the media
and advertising companies target young people as their

J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869
Table 3 Chi-square difference
between the baseline model andthe equality constrained modelfor each specific path

Adjustment for the scaling
factor of the Santorra–Bentler
chi-squares was negligible andvirtually did not affect thepresent results* p \ .05, ** p \ .01865Standardized path
North America

Standardized path
China

Dv2(1)

Age ? intrinsic

.00

.03

.32

Age ? extrinsic

.01

.09

.89

Age ? well-being

-.09*

.02

3.83

Gender ? intrinsic-.19**.02

13.38**

Gender ? extrinsic

.03

-.06

1.12

Gender ? well-being

.14**

.16**

Autonomy-support ? intrinsic

.20**

.14**

.04

Autonomy-support ? extrinsic

-.16*

.01

4.44*

Autonomy-support ? well-being

.43**

.40**

2.81

Intrinsic ? well-being

.22**

.23**

.70

Extrinsic ? well-being

.01

.12

1.12

audience (Brown and Witherspoon 2002). As nations suchas China open up to multinational corporations, young
people all over the world are exposed to their advertisements (Kanner 2005). Given these influences, it is important to understand the development of life goals among
adolescents from different cultures and how they relate totheir psychological growth and well-being. Yet researchers
in this area have primarily studied adult populations andstudies examining the influence of parental autonomysupport on whether young people prioritize intrinsic or
extrinsic life goals have been conducted mainly in the
United States. The present study extends previous work by
examining life goals, parenting practices, and well-being ina large sample of Chinese and North American adolescents.
Using a framework from self-determination theory that
distinguishes types of life goals based on how well theysatisfy psychological needs, we examined adolescents’
intrinsic and extrinsic life goals. While extrinsic life goals
tend to be pursued as a means to an end, intrinsic life goals
are pursued as an expression of inherent growth tendencies(Kasser and Ryan 1996). Self-determination theory has
further identified autonomy-support as a parenting practicethat leads to children’s optimal functioning. Replicating
previous research, we found that although there were cultural differences in the ratings of parental autonomy-support and life goals, the pattern of relationships among thesevariables was similar across two societies. Thus, autonomy-support was associated with greater endorsement of
intrinsic life goals, which in turn was associated withenhanced well-being in both North America and China.
The societal differences that we found in adolescents’
ratings of parental autonomy-support, life goals, and wellbeing are congruent with previous researchers’ findings. As
shown in a study of South Korean and US college students(Kim et al. 2003), the North American youth in our sample
rated their intrinsic life goals and their well-being higher
than the Chinese youth. The North American adolescents

1.23

also perceived their parents as being more autonomy-supportive than the Chinese adolescents. Previously,
researchers have shown that youth in the United States tend
to rate their parents as more autonomy-supportive compared to youth in Russia who perceive their parents as more
controlling (Chirkov and Ryan 2001). Yet for both American and Russian youth, perceived autonomy-support predicted greater academic motivation and well-being,
highlighting the importance of the need for autonomy
across societies. Similarly, Asian parents tend to be more
controlling and less autonomy-supportive than Americanparents (Chao and Tseng 2002). However, qualitative
research has shown that Chinese mothers preferred to guidetheir children rather than impose absolute control, using
autonomy-supportive techniques such as providing arationale for their requests (Chao 1995) and correlational
studies have revealed that autonomy-supportive parenting
predicted more adaptive learning and greater well-being
among Chinese college students (Vansteenkiste et al.
2005). Although they perceive their parents as less autonomy-supportive than North American students, autonomysupport is a relevant parenting practice for Chinese youth.
We used structural equation modelling to examine thelink between parental autonomy-support and the endorsement of intrinsic and extrinsic life goals and how thesegoals in turn relate to well-being. As hypothesized, parental
autonomy-support related positively to the endorsement of
intrinsic life goals in both China and North America. If
adolescents perceived their parents as taking their perspective, guiding them to make their own choices, andexpressing sensitivity to their needs, they were more likely
to strive for intrinsic life goals, such as working for the
betterment of society, learning new things, and having
committed relationships. This supports the findings ofprevious researchers that autonomy-supportive parental
environments are related to American adolescents having
stronger intrinsic relative to extrinsic life goals (Williams

123

866

et al. 2000) and extends their findings to a cross-cultural
sample. It further supports the findings that parental
autonomy-support has been linked to a number of positive
outcomes such as academic functioning and well-being inNorth America (Joussemet et al. 2005) and in China (Wanget al. 2007). Although we found similar relationships inChina and North America, it may be that when examinedlongitudinally, the association between parental autonomysupport and intrinsic life goals becomes stronger for North
American adolescents than Chinese youth. Using a longitudinal design, researchers found that while autonomysupport is beneficial in both the US and China, over time
the benefits of autonomy-support on children’s functioning
are stronger in the US (Wang et al. 2007). Nonetheless, ourresearch suggests that parental autonomy-support can belinked to intrinsic life goal striving among high school
students in two very different societies.
We further found that parental autonomy-support was
negatively associated with the endorsement of extrinsic life
goals in North America. The more that North Americanadolescents perceived their parents as autonomy-supportive,
the less likely they were to endorse life goals for financial
success, fame, and appearance. This finding is in line withprevious research on American adolescents (Cohen and
Cohen 1996; Williams et al. 2000) and suggests that parenting in which adolescents feel supported and guided tomake choices encourages them to place less importance on
extrinsic life goals that depend on the contingent reaction ofothers. However, we did not find the expected relationshipbetween parental autonomy-support and extrinsic life goals
in China. In fact, although not statistically significant,parental autonomy-support and extrinsic life goals approached a positive relationship. It is possible that the extrinsic
life goals have a different meaning in Chinese society. Previous researchers examining the life goals of undergraduate
students found that across 15 countries, intrinsic andextrinsic life goals opposed each other, but that in poorer
countries extrinsic goals grouped more with safety goals thanin wealthier countries, indicating that they have different
meaning for individuals in these countries (Grouzet et al.
2005). As outlined by self-determination theorists (Deci and
Ryan 2000), extrinsic life goals could relate differently toautonomy-support because they relate differently to basic
psychological needs in China.
Supporting our hypotheses, the SEM analysis revealed
that endorsing intrinsic life goals was related to enhanced
well-being in both North America and China. This finding
is congruent with previous work demonstrating that
focusing on intrinsic relative to extrinsic life goals is
associated with greater well-being: increased vitality andself-actualization, and decreased depression, anxiety, andphysical ailments (Kasser and Ryan 1993, 1996; Kim et al.
2003; Schmuck et al. 2000). It further supports previous

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J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869

research on altruism, in which helping others predicted
mental health (Schwartz et al. 2003). We have thus added
to the growing body of research demonstrating that somelife goals are more beneficial to individuals’ well-being
than others. Importantly, we found the same pattern ofresults in China and North America, suggesting that therelationship between intrinsic life goals and enhanced wellbeing holds true in very different societies. According to
self-determination theory, valuing and pursuing intrinsic
life goals is related to psychological well-being because
intrinsic life goals are positively associated with, and, infact, mediated by the satisfaction of basic psychologicalneeds for autonomy, competence, and relatedness (Kasser
2002b; Niemiec et al. 2009).
Extrinsic life goals are thought to undermine well-beingby distracting individuals from satisfying their needs forautonomy, competence and relatedness, instead focusing on
contingent approval and external signs of self-worth. Our
study did not, however, find the expected relationshipbetween endorsing extrinsic life goals and lower well-beingin either society. Previous research has mainly been conducted with adult populations. It is possible that the negative
relationship between extrinsic life goals and well-being
develops beyond adolescence. Researchers have shown thatadolescents’ endorsement of extrinsic life goals predicts
engagement in risky health behaviours such as tobacco andalcohol use (Williams et al. 2000), suggesting that later on it
could also lead to lower psychological well-being. It may
also be that intrinsic life goals are more important to wellbeing while extrinsic life goals impact ill-being, such as
anxiety and physical ailments. In a recent study of college
graduates, researchers found that the attainment of intrinsic
goals was related to well-being, while attaining extrinsic life
goals was not related to lower well-being, but was related toill-being (Niemiec et al. 2009). Future studies are needed tounderstand whether extrinsic life goals are linked to ill-being
and whether negative effects emerge later in development forsome adolescents.
Societal factors moderated the relationships between
parental autonomy-support, life goals, and well-being in
two ways. As described above, parental autonomy-support
was negatively related to extrinsic life goals in North
America, but not in China. In addition, as shown in previous studies, females compared to males tended to havehigher intrinsic life goals in North America, but there wasno gender difference in China. Despite these societal differences, we found a similar pattern of relationships
between parental autonomy-support and intrinsic life goals,
and between intrinsic life goals and well-being in North
America and China. Congruent with previous research(e.g., Joussemet et al. 2005; Wang et al. 2007), we also
found a positive relationship between parental autonomysupport and well-being in both North America and China.

J Youth Adolescence (2010) 39:858–869

The SEM further showed evidence that the endorsement of
intrinsic life goals partially mediated the relationshipbetween parental autonomy-support and well-being. These
results suggest that parenting is an important factor inallowing young people to develop life goals that are congruent with their inherent interests and that satisfy theirbasic psychological needs. It seems that the development of
intrinsic life goals, such as intimate relationships, personal
growth, and community involvement, at a time when
young people are discovering their identity and place in theworld allows individuals to experience greater well-being.
Limitations and Directions for Future Research
The present study was limited in several ways. First, therelationships between parental autonomy-support, life goals,
and well-being were examined in a cross-sectional design
and we cannot make causal conclusions on the direction of
the relationships. Although part of the model is well supported by previous research—the links between autonomysupport and better adjustment and intrinsic life goals andwell-being—it is possible that greater well-being is driving
greater endorsement of intrinsic life goals and perceptions ofparental autonomy-support. Through longitudinal studies,
researchers have demonstrated the beneficial effects of
intrinsic life goals on well-being (Niemiec et al. 2009) as
well as the beneficial effects of parental autonomy-support
on children’s adjustment (Joussemet et al. 2005). Similarly,
longitudinal studies would allow researchers to test the
impact of parenting practices on the development of life
goals. Furthermore, experimental studies in which
researchers implement an intervention to increase participants’ intrinsic life goals are important for developing causal
models on the development of life goals and their relationship to well-being. Second, all of our measures were selfreport. Future research should include parental report ofchild-rearing practices and other informants, such as healthprofessionals, to assess adolescents’ well-being.
Finally, we used only one measure of parenting and one
measure of life goals. Future research would benefit from theuse of more diverse measures to examine parenting practices
and life goals. Importantly, the present study provides evidence for a universal relationship between parental autonomy-support and endorsing intrinsic life goals. However,this dimension of parenting may reflect North American
values more than Chinese parenting goals. Researchers havecalled for the inclusion of parenting constructs that havegreater value in China, such as interpersonal connectedness
and the practice of shaming as a discipline technique (Chaoand Tseng 2002; Wang et al. 2007). Future longitudinalstudies would also benefit from supplementing measures oflife goal importance with life goal attainment. Recently
researchers conducted a longitudinal study of college

867

graduates and found that the attainment of intrinsic goals
related to psychological health whereas the attainment of
extrinsic life goals related to ill-being (Niemiec et al. 2009).
Following this work, future studies should include measuresof ill-being and address the impact of attaining different life
goals as adolescents move into adulthood. Studies measuring
the attainability of life goals and their relationship to traditional values are also important in countries, such as China,
undergoing globalization. In a recent study, researchers
examined adolescent suicide risk factors in China and foundevidence for strains in their lives, such as conflicting values(for e.g., traditional vs. modern and Chinese vs. western) anda discrepancy between aspirations and reality (such as
striving for financial success from an unprivileged social
status) (Zhang et al. 2009). Clearly, there is a need for morestudies examining the emergence and impacts of life goals
among adolescents.

Conclusion
Using a large sample of adolescents in three countries, thepresent study examined how a parenting style, autonomysupport, relates to life goals and how life goals in turn
relate to well-being. Across Chinese and North American
samples of adolescents, a similar pattern of results
emerged. When young people tended to perceive theirparents as more autonomy-supportive, they endorsed
intrinsic life goals to a greater extent, and when they
endorsed more intrinsic life goals, they tended toexperience greater well-being. These findings support selfdetermination theory’s proposition that prioritizing intrinsic life goals is beneficial across different societies and that
autonomy-supportive parenting fosters the development of
intrinsic life goals. They also support researchers’ calls forparenting workshops to teach autonomy-supportive practices (Joussemet et al. 2008) and interventions to help
young people focus on intrinsic goals (Vansteenkiste et al.
2006). Through their parents’ support of their needs andthrough striving to better their community, develop close
relationships, and accept themselves, adolescents may
experience greater psychological health and well-being at apivotal time in their development. In addition to laying the
groundwork for future longitudinal and experimental
studies on the development of life goals in different societies, these results have important implications for helping
adolescents to select intrinsic goals to direct their lives andpromote their well-being.
Acknowledgments This study was funded by grants from the Fonds
Québécois de Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, Quebec(FQRSC), and the Social Science and Humanities Research Councilof Canada (SSHRC).

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Author Biographies
Natasha Lekes is a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at
McGill University. She received a Master of Education in Human
Development and Psychology from Harvard University. Her research
examines life goals and values, with the objective of developing
clinical interventions to foster well-being and personal growth.
Isabelle Gingras is a speaker and writer on the importance ofcherishing time in our lives and an advocate against time poverty in
our society. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University andstudied over scheduling in teenagers during her post-doctoral work.
Frederick L. Philippe is a doctoral candidate in Experimental
Psychology at McGill University. He obtained a Master of Science in
Psychology from the University of Montreal. His major researchinterests include psychological need satisfaction and self-structures
such as autobiographical memory or mental representations.
Richard Koestner is a Professor of Psychology at McGill University.
He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Rochester
University. His research examines autonomy, self-regulation andmotivation.
Jianqun Fang is a Clinical Psychology Professor, Chair of theCounselling Center of Clinical Medicine of Ningxia Medical
University and Director of the Psychosomatic Medicine Departmentof the Affiliated Hospital of Ningxia Medical University. She earned
her Ph.D. in Central South University, China. Her current researchinterests are clinical psychology, including psychosomatic disease,and the study of adolescent risk behaviors.

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