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Examining the components and concomitants of parental structure in the academic domain

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Abstract

Self-Determination Theory posits and research supports that caregiver autonomy support, involvement, and structure facilitate children’s motivation and well-being. However, to attain a comprehensive understanding of these caregiving behaviors and thus make informed practical recommendations, their key components must be identified. While a significant literature examines autonomy support and involvement, structure has been less extensively researched. This study thus attempted to provide an in-depth exploration of parental structure. Drawing from past literature, six components were identified. Seventy-five seventh and eighth graders completed semi-structured interviews and students and parents completed questionnaires assessing structure, other parenting dimensions, and motivational outcomes in the academic domain. Findings indicate that structure (a) is multi-faceted, (b) is independent from autonomy support, and (c) makes unique contributions to children’s motivation and school performance. Implications for providing facilitative contexts for children’s motivation and success as well as for future work are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Given the specificity of our interactive hypothesis and our relatively small sample size, we elected to use ANOVA rather than regression analyses to test the interactions between structure and autonomy support. We recognize that when testing the significance of interactions between two continuous variables a regression analysis is often the statistical test of choice. However, such an interaction requires a significant sample size and high level of power to obtain a stable estimate. This is due to the fact that, rather than determining whether the difference between group means of one variable in relation to the outcome is different depending on a level of the other variable, a regression analysis requires enough power to estimate the extent to which the slope representing the nature of the relations between one independent variable and the outcome variable changes as a function of every one unit of increase in the other independent variable. We also ran regressions analyses to examine the interaction and, as expected, interactions were not statistically significant, although the directionality of the associations was similar to those found using the ANOVA model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Melanie S. Farkas

  2. Department of Psychology, Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA

    Wendy S. Grolnick

  3. Yale Department of Psychiatry, Cedarhurst School, 871 Prospect Street, Hamden, CT, 06517, USA

    Melanie S. Farkas

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  1. Melanie S. Farkas
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  2. Wendy S. Grolnick
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Correspondence to Melanie S. Farkas.

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Farkas, M.S., Grolnick, W.S. Examining the components and concomitants of parental structure in the academic domain. Motiv Emot 34, 266–279 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-010-9176-7

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