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Parental psychological and behavioral control and positive youth development among young Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction

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Abstract

Previous studies indicate that parental psychological control and behavioral control play crucial roles in the positive development of adolescents. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of the associations between parental psychological control and behavioral control and positive youth development (PYD). The present study sought to examine the role of basic psychological needs satisfaction as a mediator of the association between parental psychological control and behavioral control and PYD. Two-wave longitudinal data were collected from a sample of 783 young Chinese adolescents (427 boys, Mage = 10.87, SDage = .94) who enrolled in three primary schools in Beijing, China. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that basic psychological needs satisfaction mediated the associations between parental psychological control and behavioral control and PYD six months later. Moreover, results of multiple-group invariance analysis indicated no gender differences in the indirect effects of parental psychological control and behavioral control on PYD six months later through basic psychological needs satisfaction. Implications for future research and practices for parents and school practitioners are discussed.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this study came from the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 15ZDB138).

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  1. Juan Cao and Xiaoyan Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Juan Cao, Xiaoyan Li, Mingjun Xie & Danhua Lin

  2. School of Marxism, Zhejiang Police College, Hangzhou, China

    Zhi Ye

  3. Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, 10458, USA

    Mingjun Xie

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Correspondence to Mingjun Xie or Danhua Lin.

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Support for this study came from the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 15ZDB138). All authors have read and approved this version of the article and have no conflicts-of-interest. The research team obtained the university Institutional Review Board approval and the permission from school principals before collecting the surveys. The study was performed in line with the Ethics Committees’ guidelines. Students who agreed to participate were asked to sign an informed consent before completing the self-administered questionnaires.

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Cao, J., Li, X., Ye, Z. et al. Parental psychological and behavioral control and positive youth development among young Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction. Curr Psychol 41, 4645–4656 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00980-1

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