Abstract
Starting from the basic idea that identifying predictive family factors for children’s well-being is among the levels of the psychology of sustainable human development, our study aimed to investigate the impact of mothers’ achievement goal orientations and parental self-efficacy on their children’s academic well-being, considering children’s own achievement goals as a mediator variable. The entire sample comprised 350 participants: 175 children (42.86% boys) and their respective mothers. Children were enrolled in the 4th grade (n = 85; Mage = 10.44, SD = 0.49), in the 8th grade (n = 62; Mage = 14.45, SD = 0.53), and in the 12th grade (n = 28; Mage = 18.39, SD = 0.62). The results indicated that mothers’ motivational orientations had a strong effect on their children’s corresponding motivational orientations. Mothers’ achievement goal orientations and parental self-efficacy had significant effects on children’s well-being, mediated by children’s goal orientations. Children’s well-being was positively predicted by mothers’ mastery and performance-approach goal orientations, with variations between age groups. The importance of the parental motivational orientations in the development of the children’s corresponding orientations and well-being suggests that changing academic adaptation might be possible by operating early interventions at the parents’ level. Further research is necessary to explore why performance-approach goals had a positive impact on well-being in this cultural context, as previous studies revealed that this type of goal orientation may be detrimental to well-being.
Highlights
Nowadays, the definition of sustainability has expanded beyond the ecological, economic, and social environment to include the psychological dimension, focused on the promotion of people’s well-being [1]
Our study aimed to investigate the interplay between two motivational factors on children’s academic-related well-being as they unfolded for both parents and children alike during critical transition school years—these being achievement goal orientations and self-efficacy
We explored the relationships between mothers’ and their children’s achievement goal orientations and learning self-efficacy, as well as the direct or indirect effect of these motivational beliefs on the children’s well-being in their academic settings
Summary
The definition of sustainability has expanded beyond the ecological, economic, and social environment to include the psychological dimension, focused on the promotion of people’s well-being [1]. Childhood and adolescence are stages of development with a major impact on the psychological and social adjustment of the future adult. For this reason, empirical research carried out during the last few decades has focused on determining familial and personal factors that influence the sustainable development of children and adolescents (e.g., [6,7,8,9,10,11]). On the basis of the existing parenting models in the literature, three characteristics of parents influencing the development of children were identified: the parents’ beliefs (values and goals in socializing their children); the parenting practices they employ; and the parenting style as a more global configuration of different parenting practices reflecting the parents’ beliefs, attitudes, or values [12]. In the research field, different parental beliefs, practices, and styles capturing one of the two aforementioned dimensions or a combination of the two were investigated in order to identify the best parenting practices
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