An assessment of perceived parental autonomy-support and control: Child and parent correlates

A 15-item self-report questionnaire was developed to assess the constructs of perceived parental autonomy-support and control as defined by Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Three primary foci of this paper included: reporting preliminary evidence for the new scale's reliability and validity, extending the understanding of the child correlates of parental autonomy-support and control, and exploring the parent correlates and potential sources of parental autonomy-support and control.;The new scale was administered to a sample of 177 undergraduate students (68 male and 109 female). Factor analytic procedures replicated pilot study results indicating that the scale yields two relatively independent negatively correlated factors highly consistent with the constructs of autonomy-support and control. The two subscales demonstrate good internal consistency ranging from.75 to.84 (Cohen's alpha), and can be used to rate either mother or father. Students were also asked to complete several self-report personality measures assessing self-esteem, mental health, self-regulation, motivational orientation, vitality, self-actualization, public self-consciousness, and separation-individuation difficulty.;This study replicated previous findings linking parental autonomy-support and control to autonomy related child outcomes including self-esteem, self-regulation, mental health, and causality orientation. New evidence from the current study suggests that high perceived parental autonomy-support is associated with greater vitality and self-actualization. In addition, low perceived parental autonomy-support and high perceived parental control are both associated with greater separation-individuation difficulty.;In order to explore the parent correlates of perceived autonomy-support and control, data was also collected from the parents (105 mothers and 93 fathers) of 114 of the above students. Parents were administered self-esteem, mental health, and motivational orientation self-report measures.;With respect to parent correlates, results indicate that student perceptions of paternal autonomy-support are positively associated with fathers' self-reported self-esteem and mental health. Student perceptions of maternal autonomy-support are positively associated with the degree of autonomous causality orientation in mothers.