Elterliche akademische positive bedingte Wertschätzung und Autonomieunterstützung als Prädiktoren von Motivation, Affekt und Familienbeziehungen bei Jugendlichen
Zusammenfassung der Projektergebnisse
Parental Academic Conditional Positive Regard (PACPR) is a practice in which parents provide more affection, esteem, and attention than they usually do when the child studies hard and achieves. Quite a number of researchers and parents' guide books do state that parenting strategies involving PACPR are desirable since they lead children to invest more time and effort into school-related activities. In contrast, other researchers argue that PACPR produces unnecessary psychological costs such as lowered intrinsic motivation, dysfunctional self-regulation or enhanced contingency of selfesteem. With this project, we aimed to provide high-quality empirical evidence to answer the question of how (mal-)adaptive PACPR really is. For this purpose, we repeatedly interviewed a large number of 8th grade students over a period of more than 2 years about their parents' parenting behavior as well as their own motivational attitudes toward learning, their general emotional well-being, their relationship with their siblings, and much more. In order to make our data as meaningful as possible, we also asked the siblings and parents of the participating students similar questions so that we could later compare the answers and get as close as possible to the true family situation. In addition, we also wanted to make sure that our findings did not apply only to certain groups of students in a specific society, so we conducted the questionnaire studies in two countries (Israel, Germany) and among families with different religious views. To clarify the question of how harmful PACPR actually is, we looked after completion of the study to what extent this parenting behavior was related to the various other variables (self-esteem, motivation, etc.), so whether, for example, students who feel that their parents only really love them when they bring home good grades describe themselves as more anxious or depressed. In addition, in all analyses we compared PACPR with an alternative, presumably more positive parenting strategy, namely Parental Academic Autonomy Support (PAAS). Our results were fairly in line with our hypotheses. For example, PACPR was associated with increased introjected motivation, meaning that students do not get excited about learning in school on their own, but basically go there just to avoid disappointing their parents. Similarly, PACPR was associated with higher dependence of one's selfesteem on other people, less affective well-being, poorer relationships with siblings, and a decreased ability to deal with anger and other negative emotions in everyday life. PAAS, in contrast, was related to more positive outcomes such as more enjoyment of school, higher well-being, less anxiety, and the use of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies. In more detailed analyses, we were also able to show that adolescents who perceive equal amounts of PACPR and PAAS in their parents' everyday lives are more likely to show the negative effects of PACPR in their experience and behavior than the positive effects of PAAS. However, these findings are preliminary and need to be further specified. Also not yet fully explored are the data regarding the question of generalizability of the findings, specifically whether the results hold up when siblings', mothers', and fathers' judgments are included, and how much the findings differ for Israel and Germany and between different religious groups. Overall, in this project we have succeeded in generating a data set that allows very detailed analyses of the potentially negative consequences of parental conditional regard. Numerous factors can also be taken into account here, which can increase or decrease relationships in the sense of a moderator function (e.g. whether the effects are greater for boys vs. girls). Our analyses so far suggest that PACPR is indeed a parenting strategy that parents should be cautioned against and alternatives such as PAAS should be presented and explained to them instead. The insights we generated in this project provide some pieces of the puzzle for implementing such a form of counseling and intervention.
Projektbezogene Publikationen (Auswahl)
-
The intergenerational continuity of parental conditional regard and its role in mothers’ and adolescents’ contingent self‐esteem and depressive symptoms. Social Development, 29(1), 143-158.
Otterpohl, Nantje; Steffgen, Sarah Teresa; Stiensmeier‐Pelster, Joachim; Brenning, Katrijn & Soenens, Bart
-
Clarifying the connection between parental conditional regard and contingent self‐esteem: An examination of cross‐lagged relations in early adolescence. Journal of Personality, 89(5), 986-997.
Otterpohl, Nantje; Bruch, Samira; Stiensmeier‐Pelster, Joachim; Steffgen, Teresa; Schöne, Claudia & Schwinger, Malte
-
Latent Profiles of Parental Academic Conditional Positive and Negative Regard. Parenting, 22(4), 347-381.
Steffgen, Sarah Teresa; Soenens, Bart; Otterpohl, Nantje; Stiensmeier-Pelster, Joachim & Schwinger, Malte
-
Prosocial behavior between siblings: Parental conditional regard and autonomy support as antecedents. Paper presented at the International Conference on Motivation (ICM), Dresden
Steffgen, S. T., Otterpohl, N., Assor, A., Schwinger, M., Kanat-Maymon, Y., Gueta, B. E. & Stiensmeier-Pelster, J.
-
The Process Linking Child-Invested Contingent Self-Esteem and Conditional Regard: The Roles of Maternal Anger and its Regulation. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 31(9), 2412-2423.
Steffgen, Sarah Teresa; Otterpohl, Nantje; Wessing, Franziska; Schwinger, Malte; Assor, Avi; Kanat-Maymon, Yaniv; Gueta, Bat El & Stiensmeier-Pelster, Joachim
