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Parental autonomy-supportive practices and toddlers’ rule internalization: A prospective observational study

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Abstract

Motivational research conducted within self-determination theory suggests that autonomy-supportive (AS) parenting fosters rule internalization, while more controlling tactics hinder it. The goal of the present study is to examine how AS in a socialization context relates to toddlers’ internalization. Toddlers participated in a clean-up and a toy prohibition task at 2 and 3.5 years of age (T1: N = 102; T2: N = 85). Their parent’s disciplinary strategies were coded the first year. Toddlers’ committed compliance, indicative of rule internalization, was coded at both time points. After controlling for covariates and initial committed compliance, a linear regression was conducted to predict change in committed compliance over time. As expected, results reveal that parental AS strategies when toddlers were 2 years old were positively related to an improvement in committed compliance from 2 to 3.5 years of age, while controlling strategies predicted deterioration. This prospective, observational study suggests that supporting toddlers’ autonomy in socialization contexts fosters rule internalization.

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Notes

  1. Though empathy is commonly used when defining autonomy support, this element was not coded, as it is a way, for mothers, to react to manifestations of children’s distress and never used as a way to introduce the clean-up task or to solicit cooperation. Instead, the acknowledgment of a child’s feelings seemed to be used reactively rather than proactively, to diffuse/calm emotional outburst.

  2. With standardized coefficients, values of 0.10, 0.30 and 0.50 represent small, medium and large effect sizes (Cohen 1988).

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Acknowledgements

We thank David R. Forman who gave us access to observational data videos, and thus enabled us to code his observational data for this study.

Funding

This study was funded by Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture (307123) & Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture (112983).

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Laurin, J.C., Joussemet, M. Parental autonomy-supportive practices and toddlers’ rule internalization: A prospective observational study. Motiv Emot 41, 562–575 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-017-9627-5

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