Parental Autonomy Support, Parental Psychological Control and Chinese University Students' Behavior Regulation: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs.

Songqin Wei,Anabela Malpique,Timothy Teo,Adi Lausen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.735570

Abstract

The present research examined relationships between parental autonomy support, parental psychological control, and Chinese emerging adults’ autonomous regulation in their university studies as well as dysregulation in social media engagement. A total of 287 (102 female and 185 male) Chinese university students reported on their perceived parenting styles, psychological needs, and behavior regulation. Results showed that basic psychological need satisfaction was positively associated with parental autonomy support and autonomous regulation of learning; need frustration was positively correlated with parental psychological control and dysregulation in social media engagement. More importantly, psychological need frustration was a mediator of the relation between parental psychological control and dysregulation in social media engagement. Our findings suggest that students living in an autonomy-supportive familial environment tend to have satisfied psychological needs as well as autonomous learning behavior. Impairment of psychological needs could be one of the mechanisms through which psychologically controlling parenting was linked to dysregulation of social media use in Chinese culture.

Highlights

Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci, 2017), a broad framework for the study of human motivation, needs and well-being, posits that humans actively seek opportunities to satisfy their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness
The results indicated that participants with autonomy supportive parents, irrespective of their gender and age, have higher levels of psychological need satisfaction and lower levels of psychological need frustration
The results demonstrated that basic psychological need frustration (BPNF) mediated the relationship between PPC and dysregulation in social media engagement (DSME)

Summary

Introduction

Self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan and Deci, 2017), a broad framework for the study of human motivation, needs and well-being, posits that humans actively seek opportunities to satisfy their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Autonomy refers to a volitional action that is manifested in the desire to maintain an integrated sense of self; competence is related to one’s capability to interact and behave in the environment; relatedness is described as the general sense of belonging and connecting to others. The satisfaction of these needs appears to be essential for optimal functioning and their alienation may undermine individual development (Deci and Ryan, 2000). The behavior is dysregulated and negative outcomes such as self-criticism, ill-being and even psychopathology would result (Bartholomew et al, 2011; Vansteenkiste and Ryan, 2013)

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