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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 3624 – 3628

WCES 2012

The perception of parents and well-being of adolescents: Link with basic psychological need satisfaction* Ercan Kocayoruk* * Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, 17100,Turkey

Abstract The aim of the present study explored the unique influence of parents on adolescents’ subjective well-being through the perspective of Self-Determination Theory. This study examined that whether perception of parents exert solely direct effected on adolescents’ subjective well-being (i.e., positive affect and negative affect) or whether these effects were mediated though the function in basic psychological needs satisfaction (i.e., the need for autonomy, competence, and relatednesst). The direct paths suggest that autonomy supportive relationships with parents promote feelings of subjective well-being of adolescents. However, the indirect paths proposed that parents autonomy supportive had indirect influences on subjective well-being through basic psychological needs. The results were analyzed for the 227 participants (129 female, 98 male) aged between 14 and 18 years (M= 16.05, SD=1.04). The results revealed that basic psychological needs mediated the relationship between parent relationship and subjective well-being. ©2012 2012Published Publishedbyby Elsevier © Elsevier Ltd.Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Uzunboylu Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Keywords: Parents, adolescents, basic psychological needs, well-being.

1. Introduction Adolescence as a critical developmental stage is achieved most effectively in families where autonomy is encouraged, conflict is effectively managed, and members feel supported and loved. In other words, most adolescents are influenced by and live within a family structure, it is important to identify how family functions patterns interact with adolescent behaviors and it is significant to provide support for healthy adolescent development. Ryan, Stiller and Lynch (1994) indicated that when adolescents feel strongly related to their parents, they are more autonomous in the self-regulation and experienced higher well-being then those needs for relatedness is not well satisfied by their parents. This finding means that adolescents who are autonomous and feel related to parents, seem to have more choices to pursue their interest and to be better adjusted. Many Self-Determination Theory (SDT) scholars (Niemiec, Lynch, Vansteenkiste, Bernstein, Deci & Ryan. 2006; Ryan & Deci, 2000) have recently become interested in the relationship between perceived need support from parents and adolescents’ well being. Parent support is crucial to the development and expression of the selfdetermination regarding the psychological well-being of the adolescents. From the self-determination theory, parents

* The current study is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, Project: 109K558), ** Corresponding Author name.:Ercan Kocayörük, (+90-286-2171303/3139), Turkey E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Uzunboylu Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.117

Ercan Kocayoruk / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 (2012) 3624 – 3628

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tendency to internalize cultural values, attitudes, and behaviors. SDT identified also three universal human needs-the needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2000). According to the theory, these needs must be ongoingly satisfied for people to develop and function in healthy or optimal ways. Healthy adjustment and higher levels of self-determined motivation are presumed to result when the individual experiences satisfaction of these needs by feeling effective, connected to others, and autonomous. A key aspect of the theory is that individuals will be most intrinsically motivated, and most autonomous for extrinsically motivated activities, when the environment satisfies the need for autonomy. Such an controls are defined as events that pressure individuals to think, feel, or perform in specified ways (Deci & Ryan, 1987). Given the importance of self-determination, several researchers believe that teachers and parents must play a critical role in promoting student self-determination skills (Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991; Sands & Doll, 1996). Recently, adolescent relationship with their parents has been explicitly considered in many studies and a vast number of studies provide empirical evidence for the link between parent relationship and well-being in adolescence (Grolnick, Deci, & Ryan, 1997). interaction with both parents that children acquire the skills needed for better development. Within SDT, on the other hand, thwarting of the needs for autonomy such controlling parenting practice tend to impede internalization tonomy and well-being (Grolnick & Ryan, 1989; Vansteenkiste, Simons, Lens, Sheldon, & Deci 2004) Consequently, there has been a growing body of research considering the competence and emotional well-being (Rice, Cunningham, & Young, 1997) the relationship between parental support and autonomous self regulation, school grades and achievement (Grolnick & Ryan, 1989) and the effect of parental support on the feeling of well-being in adolescence (Neimiec et all,2006) The present study aimed to explore the -being through SelfDetermination frame of reference. This study examined that whether perceived parental support exert solely direct -being (i.e., positive affect and negative affect) or whether these effects were mediated through the Basic Psychological Needs (BPN- competence, relatedness and autonomy ). The direct paths suggested that perceived support from parents promote feelings of well-being. However, the indirect paths proposed that perceived support from parents have an indirect influence on well-being through BPN. The perceived support from parent likely foster high levels satisfaction of BPN, which in turn have been linked with high levels of well-being. 2. Method 2.1. Sample The results were analyzed for the 227 participants (129 female, 98 male) aged between 14 and 18 years (M= 16.05, SD=1.04). A meeting was held with the students to describe the aims of research and to obtain their permission and collaboration. After distribution with separate answer sheets to students, the instructions were read aloud, and the importance of completing all items was stated. The average administration time for both instruments was 10 minutes. 2.2 Instruments 2.2.1. Perceptions of Parents Scale (POPS; Robbins, 1994): addition it assesses the degree to which the children perceive their parents to provide warmth. The Turkish version of the POPS includes three scales and was adapted by

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drawings. Results of the confirmatory factor analyses suggested the original factor structure of the POPS does not fit the data for ado indices check, the relationships between the error terms of items were determined. The second confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the new three-factor model provides acceptable fit. It was concluded that the POPS constitutes a useful tool for the assessment of both parent and peer attachment in adolescent aged between 14 and 18 years 2.2.2 Positive and Negative Affect Scales (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988): PANAS, developed by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988), is a ten-item brief measure of affective evaluation of life with two dimensions. Positive affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA). The adaptation of the scale to Turkish Consistent with the original study, the result of the factor analysis revealed two factors accounting for the 44% of the total variance. The Cronbach alpha consistency of PANAS in this study was found .81. 2.2.3. The Basic Psychological Need Scale (Gagne, 2003): subscale contains seven items, competence contains six items and relatedness contains eight items.. BPNS was he internal consistency . for the scale was.82. Similarly, t

2.3.Data Analysis 2 (a non-significant value that corresponds to an For this analysis, goodness-of-fit statistics were 2 are known to increase with sample size and degree of freedom, the use of four indices is commonly suggested; (a) Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (S-RMR)< .08, (b) Root Mean Square Residual of Approximation (RMSEA)< .06, (c) Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI)> .90, (d) Adjusted Goodness-of-Fit Index (AGFI)> .85 and e) Comparative Fit Index (CFI)> .90 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). In this study, the measurement model and structural model were estimated using the maximum-likelihood method in the LISREL 8.54 program (Joreskog & Sorbom, 2003).

3. Results Anderson and Gerbing (1988) suggested conducting a confirmatory factor analysis to examine whether the measurement model provides an acceptable fit to the data before a structural model is examined. The findings of the 2 (55, N=227)= 106,73, p= .001, measurement CFI=.97, RMSEA=.065, SRMR=.050, GFI= .93, AGFI= .89). This result of the measurement model testing implied that the latent variables appeared to have been adequately operationalized by their respective indicators and therefore, structural model could be examined. The results of the structural model testing also revealed a good fit of N=227)= 107,35, p= .001, CFI=.95, RMSEA=.064, SRMR=.039, GFI=.93, AGFI=. 88). Mother relationship was significantly and positively related to BPN and positive affect score. However, direct paths from mother relationship to negative affect were not significant. This result suggested that the function of satisfaction of psychological needs fully mediated the relationship between mother relationship and negative affect, but partially mediated the relationship between mother relationship and positive affect. On the other hand, father relationship was directly and positively related to BPNS and positive affect and negatively related to

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negative affect suggesting that BPN partially mediated the relationship between father relationship and negative affect and positive affect (Figure 1). Auto. Invol. Warm

.56*** .23***(.49***)

MOT

.59*** .56***

Pa1 .36***(.53***) Auto.

***

-.11(-.25 )

.59 .22***(.48***)

.65*** Com. Rel.

.69

***

.72

.70***

Invol.

.68***

Warm

.52***

Pa2

BPN

***

-.39***(-.41***) .22***(.53***)

Auto.

PA

***

.21***(.28***)

NA

.86***

Na1

.75*** Na2

FAT

-.18***(-.54***)

.77***

Figure 1. Model of the theoretically hypothesized relationships among perception of to parents, basic psychological needs satisfaction, negative and positive affect. Notes: The numbers in parentheses refer to the coefficients for the measurement model. ***p< .001; Dashed lines refer to the non- significant paths. MOT= Perception of mother, FAT:=Perception of father, BPN= Basic psychological needs, PA=Positive affect, NA:=Negative affect. Auto.= Autonomy, Invol.= Involvement and Warm. =Warmth. Higher scores on subscales of mother perception and father perception (Auto., Invol. and Warm.) indicate higher levels of . Auto= need for autonomy, Com.= need for competence and Rel.= need for Relatedness. Higher scores on subscales of Basic Psychological Need (Auto., Com. and Rel.) indicate higher levels of basic psychological need satisfaction. Pa1 and Pa 2 two parcels from Positive affect. Na1 and Na2 two parcel from Negative affect.

4. Discussions The results of the study revealed that BPN was full mediator in the relationship between perception of mother and negative affect of adolescents. However, BPN was partial mediator in the relationship between perception of mother and positive affect of adolescents. On the other hand, BPN was partial mediator in the relationship between perception of father and positive and negative affect of adolescents. Additionally, the findings of the study explored that perception of father associated with the both BPN and well-being (positive affect and negative affect) of adolescents, although perception of mother was higher than father scores. The findings of the current study can be used in the prevention and intervention programs for The aim of this kind of training or education program is to strengthen the bond between adolescents and their parents, so that they can establish better interaction to overcome difficulties in the adjustment and emotional disturbance. School counselors may develop workshops or group training sessions in which mother and fathers participate in to learn various skills to help adolescent improve the competence, relatedness, and autonomy including the communication skills, the quality of relationships in the peer groups, and the social interaction in school settings. In this consideration, such a kind of training and workshop for parents may attend to the importance of the relationship between parents and their children and the different influence of parents on adolescent development. Perhaps increasing basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) may be one of

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several possible interventions, which could reduce the feelings of shame, depression, and loneliness experienced by high school students (Wei, Shaffer, Young, & Zakalik , 2005.)

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