| The purpose of this quantitative dissertation was to examine factors determining adolescents' perceptions of ways they develop autonomy. There is a gap in knowledge on adolescents' own beliefs about how they develop autonomy. Self-determination theory, the foundation for this study, holds that the experience of autonomy is crucial for optimal learning and environmental mastery. This research examined whether a relationship exists between adolescents' perceptions of parental support, parent adolescent communication, and autonomy development; whether adolescent autonomy development can be predicted by their perception of parental support, parent adolescent communication, and whether there were ethnic group and gender differences in adolescents' perceptions of autonomy development, perception of parental support and parent adolescent communication. The relationship between variables was examined by implementing descriptive statistics, correlations analysis, multiple regression analysis, and MANOVA. Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White participants (n=130), were given the Self Regulation Questionnaire-Academic to measure relative autonomy (RAI), the Perception of Parent Scale to measure parental support, and the Parent Adolescent Communication Scale to measure parent adolescent communication. Results showed that a significant relationship does exist between adolescent perception of parental support, parent adolescent communication, and autonomy development. Race was found to be significantly related to RAI scores. Multiple regression analysis showed that age and gender accounted for only 1% variation in RAI scores. Findings from this study may promote social change by assisting professionals in developing culturally sensitive programs on adolescent development from the adolescents' point of view. |
