Autonomy and Relatedness in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Relationships with Parental Support and Psychological Distress

Abstract

Autonomy and relatedness are fundamental needs both in adolescence and in emerging adulthood which are affected by parental support and are linked to children's psychological distress. The study investigated autonomy and relatedness in late adolescents and emerging adults living in Italy, analyzing the relationships with perceived parental support and psychological distress. Selfreport data were collected from a sample of 325 Caucasian adolescents and emerging adults (males = 41 %) ranging in age from 17 to 26 years and living in Sicily (southern Italy). Results showed that: (a) both autonomy and relatedness were positively predicted by parental support to these needs, (b) perceived support for autonomy was positively associated with perceived support for relatedness, (c) autonomy and relatedness were positively related to each other for emerging adults, but they were not related for teens, (d) autonomy predicted negatively depression and loneliness, while relatedness predicted negatively externalizing problems (only for adolescents), stress, depression, and loneliness. Taken together, the findings confirmed that autonomy and relatedness are fundamental needs for both teens and emerging adults related to parental support and psychological health. Notwithstanding, age moderated some of the investigated relationships suggesting that autonomy and relatedness have different meanings, as well as playing different roles during adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Parenting Dimensions and Internalizing Difficulties in Italian and U.S. Emerging Adults: The Intervening Role of Autonomy and Relatedness

“…Although individuals increasingly display autonomous functioning from their parents during this period, parents continue to play a significant role (Arnett 2004;Inguglia et al 2015;Soenens and Beyers 2012;. As a result, the most studied parenting dimensions are psychological control and autonomy-supportive parenting (Fousiani et al 2014;Soenens and Beyers 2012;Soenens et al 2009), both of which have been found to be associated with internalizing problems in emerging adulthood.…”

“…Autonomy is defined as the sense of volition, the desire to self-organize experience and behavior, and to have activity concordant with one's integrated sense of self. Relatedness is defined as the feeling of being connected to others, of loving, caring, and being loved and cared for, and establishing high quality, satisfying and positive bonds with others (Deci and Ryan 2000;Inguglia et al 2015). Finally, competence is considered as the experience of a sense of effectiveness in interacting with one's environment (White 1959).…”

“…Generally, the more parents support children's strivings for autonomy, the more children are able to strengthen their sense of volition and to establish satisfying relationships. In contrast, the more parents behave in psychologically controlling ways, the less their children are autonomous and embedded in a network of positive relationships (Inguglia et al 2015;Koepke and Denissen 2012). Among the three basic needs, autonomy and relatedness are most aligned with Kagitçibaşi's theory of the autonomous-relatedness self, which asserts that parents who refer to the family model of psychological interdependence tend to promote a strong sense of autonomy in their children along with high levels of relatedness.…”

Predictors of University Students' Academic Achievement: A Prospective Study

“…This confirms that parents still play a key role in the development of students' psychological autonomy during emerging adulthood. Students whose parents provided a unique combination of high care and low control had better adjustment across several domains of college-related issues (Inguglia, Ingoglia, Liga, Lo Coco, & Lo Cricchio, 2015;Smojver-Ažić, Martinac Dorčić, & Juretić, 2015). Students who do not develop emotional independence and still need approval from their parents feel more pressure to fulfil parental expectations, which undermine their learning capacities, resulting in lower academic achievement.…”

Developing features of sport parenting expertise: an investigation and intervention

“…The importance of this inference is that a significant body of research across various domains suggests that improved parent relatedness fosters children's development of desirable psychosocial and performance characteristics. For example, as reported in Chapter 2, parental relatedness support has been positively associated with children's well-being (e.g., Milyavskaya et al, 2009;Veronneau et al, 2005); and negatively associated with child characteristics associated with poor well-being (e.g., King, 2015;Inguglia et al, 2014). I also previously outlined the link between parental ability to support children's relatedness BPN and factors relating to children's performance in Chapter 2 (and I summarize these outcomes again in Part B of this study).…”