Abstract
There is a burgeoning literature on autonomy-supportive parenting and positive adaptation in youth across diverse cultures, but little is known about autonomy support in immigrant families. Bolstering autonomy in immigrant youth may be particularly important for their success on both universal and immigrant-specific developmental tasks and yet studies examining autonomy support in immigrant adolescents are rare. In the current study, the first goal was to establish measurement equivalence for a widely-used autonomy support measure in immigrant and non-immigrant youth. Subsequently, we examined how changes in autonomy support during early adolescence varied by immigrant status. The sample included 1252 immigrant and non-immigrant youth (Mage = 12.70 at Wave 1) living in Greece who completed a self-report measure of maternal autonomy support in their schools once per year for three years. Results indicated that the latent construct, factor loadings, and item thresholds of the autonomy support measure were invariant across immigrant and non-immigrant adolescents, as well as over time. Neither group displayed significant growth in autonomy support and, counter to expectation, trajectories of autonomy support did not differ by immigrant status. These findings demonstrate that autonomy support is a meaningful construct in Greek native and immigrant families and also indicate that these behaviors, as perceived by youth, were stable during early to middle adolescence for immigrant and non-immigrant youth living in Greece.
Highlights
-
The autonomy granting scale of the Parent Behavior Measure showed validity for Greek native and immigrant youth.
-
We established measurement equivalence over time and for both native and immigrant adolescents.
-
Native and immigrant youth endorsed similar levels of autonomy support during early to middle adolescence.
-
Autonomy support, as perceived by youth, was stable over time and this pattern did not differ by immigrant status.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., Bell, K. L., & O’Connor, T. G. (1994). Longitudinal assessment of autonomy and relatedness in adolescent‐family interactions as predictors of adolescent ego development and self‐esteem. Child Development, 65, 179–194. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00743.x.
Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., O’Connor, T. G., Bell, K. L., & Eickholt, C. (1996). The connection of observed family conflict to adolescents developing autonomy and relatedness with parents. Development and Psychopathology, 8, 425–442. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579400007173.
Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01915.x.
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67, 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01.
Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46, 5–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1997.tb01087.x.
Brenning, K., Soenens, B., Van Petegem, S., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2015). Perceived maternal autonomy support and early adolescent emotion regulation: a longitudinal study. Social Development, 24, 561–578. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12107.
Cavounidis, J. (2002). Migration in southern Europe: the case of Greece. International Migration, 40, 45–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2435.00185.
Chirkov, V. I., & Ryan, R. M. (2001). Parent and teacher autonomy-support in Russian and U.S. adolescents: common effects on well-being and academic motivation. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32, 618–635. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022101032005006.
Chirkov, V., Ryan, R. M., Kim, Y., & Kaplan, U. (2003). Differentiating autonomy from individualism and independence: a self-determination theory perspective on internalization of cultural orientations and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 97–110. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.84.1.97.
Chirkov, V. I., Ryan, R. M., & Willness, C. (2005). Cultural context and psychological needs in Canada and Brazil. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 423–443. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022105275960.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1987). The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1024–1037. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.53.6.1024.
Dimitrova, R., Chasiotis, A., & Van De Vijver, F. (2016). Adjustment outcomes of immigrant children and youth in Europe: a meta-analysis. European Psychologist, 21, 150–162. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000246.
Downie, M., Chua, S. N., Koestner, R., Barrios, M. F., Rip, B., & M’Birkou, S. (2007). The relations of parental autonomy support to cultural internalization and well-being of immigrants and sojourners. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13, 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1037/1099-9809.13.3.241.
Fousiani, K., Van Petegem, S., Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., & Chen, B. (2014). Does parental autonomy support relate to adolescent autonomy? An in-depth examination of a seemingly simple question. Journal of Adolescent Research, 29, 299–330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558413502536.
Fuligni, A. J., & Tsai, K. M. (2015). Developmental flexibility in the age of globalization: autonomy and identity development among immigrant adolescents. Annual Review of Psychology, 150, 411–431. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015111.
Gecas, V., & Schwalbe, M. L. (1986). Parental behavior and adolescent self-esteem. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 37–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/352226.
Good, I. J. (2006). Scientific method and statistics. In S. Kotz, C. B. Read, N. Balakrishnan, B. Vidakovic, & N. L. Johnson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of statistical sciences (pp. 1–13). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Grolnick, W. S., Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (1991). Inner resources for school achievement: motivational mediators of children’s perceptions of their parents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 508–517. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.83.4.508.
Inguglia, C., Ingoglia, S., Liga, F., Lo Coco, A., & Lo Cricchio, M. G. (2015). Autonomy and relatedness in adolescence and emerging adulthood: relationships with parental support and psychological distress. Journal of Adult Development, 22, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-014-9196-8.
Isiordia, M., & Ferrer, E. (2018). Curve of factors model: a latent growth modeling approach for educational research. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 78, 203–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164416677143.
Jorgensen, T. D., Pornprasertmanit, S., Schoemann, A. M., & Rosseel, Y. (2018). semTools: useful tools for structural equation modeling. https://CRAN.Rproject.org/package=semTools.
Joussemet, M., Landry, R., & Koestner, R. (2008). A self-determination theory perspective on parenting. Canadian Psychology, 49, 194–200. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012754.
Kağitçibaşi, Ç. (2005). Autonomy and relatedness in cultural context: Implications for self and family. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 403–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022105275959.
Kağitçibaşi, Ç. (2012). Sociocultural change and integrative syntheses in human development: autonomous-related self and social-cognitive competence. Child Development Perspectives, 6, 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00173.x.
Kağitçibaşi, Ç. (2013). Adolescent autonomy-relatedness and the family in cultural context: what is optimal? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23, 223–235. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12041.
Kağitçibaşi, Ç. (2017). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications. New York, NY: Routledge.
Kağitçibaşi, Ç., Sunar, D., Bekman, S., Baydar, N., & Cemalcilar, Z. (2009). Continuing effects of early enrichment in adult life: the Turkish early enrichment project 22 years later. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30, 764–779. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2009.05.003.
Kiang, L., & Bhattacharjee, K. (2019). Developmental change and correlates of autonomy in Asian American adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 410–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0909-3.
Kolaitis, G., Tsiantis, J., Madianos, M., & Kotsopoulos, S. (2003). Psychosocial adaptation of immigrant Greek children from the former Soviet Union. European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 12, 67–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-003-0310-x.
Kwak, K. (2003). Adolescents and their parents: a review of intergenerational family relations for immigrant and non-immigrant families. Human Development, 46, 115–136. https://doi.org/10.1159/000068581.
Lekes, N., Gingras, I., Philippe, F. L., Koestner, R., & Fang, J. (2010). Parental autonomy-support, intrinsic life goals, and well-being among adolescents in China and north America. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 858–869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9451-7.
Li, C. (2016). Confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data: comparing robust maximum likelihood and diagonally weighted least squares. Behavior Research Methods, 48, 936–949. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-015-0619-7.
Little, T. D., Jorgensen, T. D., Lang, K. M., & Moore, E. W. G. (2014). On the joys of missing data. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 39, 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpepsy/jst048.
Liu, Y., Millsap, R. E., West, S. G., Tein, J. Y., Tanaka, R., & Grimm, K. J. (2017). Testing measurement invariance in longitudinal data with ordered-categorical measures. Psychological Methods, 22, 486–506. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000075.
Lubke, G. H., & Muthén, B. O. (2004). Applying multigroup confirmatory factor models for continuous outcomes to Likert scale data complicates meaningful group comparisons. Structural Equation Modeling, 11, 514–534. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1104_2.
Luyckx, K., Soenens, B., Goossens, L., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2007). Parenting, identity formation, and college adjustment: a mediation model with longitudinal data. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 7, 309–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283480701600785.
Luyckx, K., Vansteenkiste, M., Goossens, L., & Duriez, B. (2009). Basic need satisfaction and identity formation: bridging self-determination theory and process-oriented identity research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56, 276–288. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015349.
Marbell, K. N., & Grolnick, W. S. (2013). Correlates of parental control and autonomy support in an interdependent culture: a look at Ghana. Motivation and Emotion, 37, 79–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-012-9289-2.
Missirian, A., & Schlenker, W. (2017). Asylum applications respond to temperature fluctuations. Science, 358, 1610–1614. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao0432.
Motti-Stefanidi, F. (2014). Immigrant youth adaptation in the Greek school context: a risk and resilience developmental perspective. Child Development Perspectives, 8, 180–185. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12081.
Motti-Stefanidi, F. (2018). Resilience among immigrant youth: the role of culture, development and acculturation. Developmental Review, 50, 99–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2018.04.002.
Motti-Stefanidi, F., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2017). Adaptation during a great economic recession: a cohort study of Greek and immigrant youth. Child Development, 88, 1139–1155. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12878.
Motti-Stefanidi, F., Asendorpf, J. B., & Masten, A. S. (2012). The adaptation and well-being of adolescent immigrants in Greek schools: a multilevel, longitudinal study of risks and resources. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 451–473. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579412000090.
Motti-Stefanidi, F., & Masten, A. S. (2020). Immigrant youth resilience: integrating developmental and cultural perspectives. In D. Güngör, & D. Strohmeier (Eds), Contextualizing immigrant and refugee resilience cultural and acculturation perspectives (pp. 11–31). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42303-2_2
Motti-Stefanidi, F., Masten, A. S., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2015). School engagement trajectories of immigrant youth: risks and longitudinal interplay with academic success. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 39, 32–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025414533428.
Motti-Stefanidi, F., Pavlopoulos, V., Obradović, J., Dalla, M., Takis, N., Papathanassiou, A., & Masten, A. S. (2008). Immigration as a risk factor for adolescent adaptation in Greek urban schools. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 235–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405620701556417.
Mulaik, S. A., James, L. R., Van Alstine, J., Bennett, N., Lind, S., & Stilwell, C. D. (1989). Evaluation of goodness of fit indices for structural equation models. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 430–445. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.105.3.430.
Nagin, D. S., & Land, K. C. (1993). Age, criminal careers, and population heterogeneity: specification and estimation of a nonparametric, mixed Poisson model. Criminology, 31, 327–362. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1993.tb01133.x.
Newland, K. (2011). Climate change and migration dynamics. Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.42.
Oudekerk, B. A., Allen, J. P., Hessel, E. T., & Molloy, L. E. (2015). The cascading development of autonomy and relatedness from adolescence to adulthood. Child Development, 86, 472–485. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12313.
Pavlopoulos, V., & Motti-Stefanidi, F. (2017). Intercultural relations in Greece. In J. W. Berry (Ed.), Mutual intercultural relations (pp. 187–209). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Peterson, G. W., Rollins, B. C., & Thomas, D. L. (1985). Parental influence and adolescent conformity: compliance and internalization. Youth & Society, 16, 397–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X85016004001.
R Core Team (2018). R: a language and environment for statistical computing. https://www.R-project.org/
Rosseel, Y. (2012). lavaan: an R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48, 1–36. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v048.i02.
Ryan, R. M. (1993). Agency and organization: Intrinsic motivation, autonomy, and the self in psychological development. In J. Jacobs (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (pp. 1–56). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130552.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. The American Psychologist, 55, 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2006). Self-regulation and the problem of human autonomy: does psychology need choice, self-determination, and will? Journal of Personality, 74, 1557–1585. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00420.x.
Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L., Grolnick, W. S., & La Guardia, J. G. (2015). The significance of autonomy and autonomy support in psychological development and psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: theory and method (pp. 795–849). New York, NY: Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470939383.ch20
Rubin, D. (1987). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. New York, NY: Wiley.
Soenens, B., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2005). Antecedents and outcomes of self-determination in 3 life domains: the role of parents’ and teachers’ autonomy support. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34, 589–604. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-005-8948-y.
Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., Lens, W., Luyckx, K., Goossens, L., Beyers, W., & Ryan, R. M. (2007). Conceptualizing parental autonomy support: adolescent perceptions of promotion of independence versus promotion of volitional functioning. Developmental Psychology, 43, 633–646. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.3.633.
Suárez-Orozco, C., Motti-Stefanidi, F., Marks, A., & Katsiaficas, D. (2018). An integrative risk and resilience model for understanding the adaptation of immigrant-origin children and youth. American Psychologist, 73, 781–796. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000265.
Suárez-Orozco, M. M., & Qin-Hilliard, D. B. (2004). Globalization: Culture and education in the new millennium. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Supple, A., Ghazarian, S. R., Peterson, G. W., & Bush, K. R. (2009). Assessing the cross-cultural validity of a parental autonomy granting measure. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 40, 816–833. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022109339390.
Triandafyllidou, A., & Veikou, M. (2002). The hierarchy of Greekness: ethnic and national identity considerations in Greek immigration policy. Ethnicities, 2, 189–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796802002002656.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2014). Youth migration: facts & figures. In J. Cortina, P. Taran, & A. Raphael (Eds.), Migration and youth: Challenges and opportunities (pp. 1–16). http://www.globalmigrationgroup.org/system/files/4._Chapter_1.pdf.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2017). International Migration Report 2017 (ST/ESA/SER.A/403). http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/migrationreport/docs/MigrationReport2017.pdf.
van Buuren, S. & & Groothuis-Oudshoorn, K. (2011). Mice: multivariate imputation by chained equations in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 45, 1–67. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v045.i03.
Van Petegem, S., Beyers, W., Vansteenkiste, M., & Soenens, B. (2012). On the association between adolescent autonomy and psychosocial functioning: examining decisional independence from a self-determination theory perspective. Developmental Psychology, 48, 76–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025307.
Vandekerckhove, J., Matzke, D., & Wagenmakers, E. J. (2015). Model comparison and the principle of parsimony. In J. R. Busemeye, Z. Wang, J. T. Townsend & A. Eidels (Eds.), Oxford handbook of computational and mathematical psychology (pp. 300–320). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Vandenberg, R. J., & Lance, C. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices, and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3, 4–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/109442810031002.
Vasquez, A. C., Patall, E. A., Fong, C. J., Corrigan, A. S., & Pine, L. (2016). Parent autonomy support, academic achievement, and psychosocial functioning: a meta-analysis of research. Educational Psychology Review, 28, 605–644. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9329-z.
Wang, Q., Pomerantz, E. M., & Chen, H. (2007). The role of parents’ control in early adolescents’ psychological functioning: a longitudinal investigation in the United States and China. Child Development, 78, 1592–1610. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01085.x.
Whittaker, T. A., Beretvas, S. N., & Falbo, T. (2014). Dyadic curve-of-factors model: an introduction and illustration of a model for longitudinal nonexchangeable dyadic data. Structural Equation Modeling, 21, 303–317. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.882695.
Wong, M. M. (2008). Perceptions of parental involvement and autonomy support: their relations with self-regulation, academic performance, substance use and resilience among adolescents. North American Journal of Psychology, 10, 497–518.
Zimmer-Gembeck, M. J. & Collins, W. A. (2003). Autonomy development during adolescence. In G. R. Adams M. Berzonsky (eds.), Blackwell handbook of adolescence, (pp. 175–204). Oxford, England: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756607.ch9.
Acknowledgements
The present study uses data from the Athena Studies of Resilient Adaptation (AStRA), a collaborative project focusing on the quality of adaptation of immigrant youth living in Greece. This project was supported by a research grant to F.M.S. funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI). The grant supports research projects of faculty members and researchers working in Greek Universities and Research Centres. Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part by the University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (R.D.) and the Irving B. Harris Professorship (A.S.M).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Distefano, R., Masten, A.S. & Motti-Stefanidi, F. Autonomy-Supportive Parenting in Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Youth During Early Adolescence. J Child Fam Stud 30, 1171–1183 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01943-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01943-1