Abstract
Infant exploration often hinges on parental autonomy support (i.e., parental behaviors that support children’s goals, interests, and choices), a construct that is widely applied in family studies of school-age children and adolescents but less studied in infants and toddlers. Notable gaps concern the equivalence, similarities, and contrasts between mothers’ and fathers’ autonomy support and the correlates of individual differences in autonomy support. To address these underresearched topics, we conducted parallel home-based structured play observations of 195 infants (Mage = 14.42 months, SD = .59) in dyadic interaction with mothers and fathers. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated measurement invariance across parent gender, enabling comparisons that revealed significantly moderately higher levels of autonomy support in mothers than in fathers. Individual differences in autonomy support were unrelated to either parental personality or child temperament, highlighting the potential importance of dyadic characteristics. Consistent with this view, whereas maternal autonomy support did not differ by child gender, fathers with sons displayed less autonomy support than did fathers with daughters.
Highlights
Infant exploration often hinges on parental autonomy support, a construct that is widely applied in family studies of school-age children and adolescents but less studied in infants and toddlers
Mothers and fathers did not differ in the proportions: (a) with school–vocational qualifications, undergraduate degree, or postgraduate qualifications, Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Continuous Parent Measures
This study of 195 infants 14 months old filmed at home in parallel structured dyadic play sessions with mothers and fathers contributes to the field in two ways
Summary
Participants were recruited to the New Fathers and Mothers Study, which aimed to examine links between parental well-being, parent– child interactions, and child outcomes in families with firstborn children. Of the 205 families eligible for follow-up when the infants were 4 months old, 196 (96%) agreed to a home visit. At the birth of their child, mothers were on average 32.61 years of age (SD ϭ 3.60, range ϭ 25.10 –43.15) and fathers were on average 33.98 (SD ϭ 4.35, range ϭ 24.05–49.63). Both mothers and fathers had high levels of educational attainment: 84.6% of mothers and 77.1% of fathers had an undergraduate degree or higher. Mothers (60.8%) and fathers (61.4%) were drawn predominantly from professional occupations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
