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The important role of parenting is widely acknowledged, but as most studies have understood and examined it as a stable attribute (e.g., parenting style), the stability of and changes in parenting are less well understood. Using longitudinal person-oriented approaches (i.e., latent profile analyses and latent transition analyses), this study aimed to examine the stability of and changes in autonomy-related parenting profiles and their effects on adolescents’ academic and psychological development. Four autonomy-related dimensions (i.e., autonomy support, warmth, psychological control, conditional regard) were chosen to identify parenting profiles on the basis of Self-Determination Theory. Using five-year longitudinal data from 789 German secondary school students (50.06% female, Mage at T1 = 10.82 years, age span = 10–17), four autonomy-related parenting profiles were found: Supportive (~17%), Controlling (~31%), Unsupportive-Uncontrolling (~17%), and Limited Supportive (~35%). The results suggest that the Supportive profile contributes to adolescents’ positive academic and psychological development, whereas the Controlling profile, which thwarts autonomy development, exacerbates the development of psychopathology, and impairs academic achievement. More importantly, the Limited Supportive profile is as maladaptive as the Unsupportive-Uncontrolling profile. Regarding parenting profiles’ stability and changes, the results showed that about half of each profile stayed in the same group. Overall, it could be observed that parents became more supportive and less controlling over time. However, the findings also indicate that parenting profiles are less stable than expected and can still change during early-to-mid adolescence.

This study contributes to understanding students’ emotional responses to academic stressors by integrating grit into the well-established Job Demands-Resources Model and by examining the relationship between academic demands, grit (consistency of interests, perseverance of effort), burnout, engagement, academic achievement, depression, and life satisfaction in Chinese students. We conducted a self-report study with N = 1527 Chinese high school students (Mage = 16.38 years, SD = 1.04). The results of structural equation modeling showed that after controlling for gender, socio-economic status, and school types, demands positively related to burnout and negatively related to engagement. Both facets of grit negatively related to exhaustion, whereas only perseverance of effort positively related to engagement. Burnout positively related to depression and negatively related to life satisfaction, whereas engagement positively related to life satisfaction. However, neither burnout nor engagement was related to academic achievement. Our findings indicate that grit may be protective against school burnout.

Abstract. This paper deals with parental goals for children, that is, goals parents want their children to attain by the time they reach adulthood. Presenting an adaption of the German Aspirations Index to assess parental goals for children (AI-PG), factorial structure and psychometric properties in a nonclinical sample of German parents of children between 10 and 15 years of age were investigated. Parents (NT1 = 948; NT2 = 670) rated the importance of different parental goals for children. The AI-PG structure was first examined in a subsample of mothers using confirmatory factor analyses. Main results provided support for the hypothesized hierarchical factorial structure. Accordingly, the given 21 items can be assigned to seven first-order factors that reflect goal-contents, and two second-order factors that reflect goals’ motivational orientation as either intrinsic or extrinsic. The questionnaire shows good psychometric properties (i.e., homogeneity, model-based reliability, and stability). Multiple-group analyses confirmed measurement invariance across informants (mothers and fathers), gender of target children (daughters and sons), and measurement time points. Small but significant relationships of the scales with need-threatened environment, parenting practices, and child internalizing behavior problems added to the scale’s construct validity. Results are discussed in terms of the fruitfulness of a concept of parental goals for children within self-determination theory.

Ample empirical research from regular school settings documents reciprocal effects between academic performance and academic self-concept of ability (ASC), supporting what is known as a reciprocal effects model (REM). The present article investigates a REM in the domain of reading performance in a sample of elementary students with special educational needs in learning (SEN-L) who received special educational support in exclusive versus inclusive settings (N = 446). In exclusive settings, SEN-L students attend special schools and are completely separated from regular students. By contrast, SEN-L students in inclusive settings attend regular schools and are educated in classes with regular students. In both settings, SEN-L students are not graded and taught based on individual learning goals, which may affect reciprocal effects between ASC and reading performance. In addition, given that special education for SEN-L students relies heavily on individual reference standards to evaluate performance, we tested individual performance growth of SEN-L students as a predictor of ASC. Analyses of a longitudinal dataset across 3rd and 4th grade revealed some cross-lagged effects and an effect of performance growth on ASC in exclusive settings in particular. The discussion focuses on the role of individualized instruction, grades, peer groups, and individual versus social reference standards for reciprocal effects between ASC and performance as well as practical implications.

In emotion regulation research, it is common to distinguish adaptive from maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. However, little is known about their interactional impact (compensational or interfering effects) on adolescents’ adjustment. We collected longitudinal, multiple informant questionnaire data from N = 608 adolescents and their parents to examine the prevalence of adolescents’ anger regulation profiles using latent profile analysis. We identified five anger regulation profiles—an adaptive, a maladaptive, a low, a medium, and an undefined profile. The first three profiles could be replicated 1 year later, as could one additional multiple and another undefined profile. Findings supported the assumption that adaptive strategies compensate for the negative impact of maladaptive strategies, yielding negative psychosocial consequences, particularly for the maladaptive profiles. Moreover, different profiles were divergently related to adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problems concurrently and over time. Results highlight the importance of considering both adaptive and maladaptive anger regulation strategies in prevention and psychotherapy.

Although home-based parental involvement (HPI) remains critical to children's learning and achievement, there is limited evidence for children with learning disabilities (LD). The present study explores and examines parental characteristics that may predict the quantity and different qualities of HPI in LD children. Predictor constructs include SES, educational aspiration, parental role conception, and shame in having an LD child. Using self-determination theory, qualities of HPI were defined in terms of parental control and structure. As a secondary issue, this study also examines the mediating roles of parental aspiration and shame in the relationship between school setting (exclusion versus inclusion) and parental control. A sample of 357 German parents of LD children participated. Path analyses indicated that SES, parental aspiration, and role conception were predictive of the amount of involvement. Higher degrees of role conception determined parents' use of structure. Higher aspirations and feelings of shame motivated parents to be more controlling. Bootstrap analyses confirmed the fully mediating effects of aspiration and shame on an inclusive setting through parental control.

Adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies have been found to be important prerequisites of children’s social competence and psychosocial adjustment. However, only a few studies have been conducted to examine their interactional impact on children’s psychosocial adjustment. We collected multiple informant questionnaire data from N = 608 adolescents (10 - 14 years) and their parents in order to examine the prevalence of adolescents’ anger regulation profiles by means of latent profile analysis (LPA) as a sophisticated person-centered method. Overall, LPA identified four corresponding anger regulation profiles for adolescents (self-report) and parents (other-report). Furthermore, the different anger regulation profiles were found to be divergently related to internalizing and externalizing problems and prosocial behavior. Our findings support the assumption that specific kinds of psychopathology might be characterized by a different interplay of adaptive and maladaptive ER strategies. Possible reasons and practical implications are discussed.

Good reasoning skills are integral to the ability to think reflectively, critically and effectively. Research is scarce on the role of family, specifically parents, in the shaping of children's evaluative reasoning skills in everyday problems. The aim of this study is therefore to first investigate the role of two parenting practices, namely autonomy-support and control, on children's evaluative reasoning. The second goal is to investigate if family communication patterns of conversation- and conformity-orientations are significant mediators between parenting dimensions and reasoning skills. The data consisted of questionnaire measures given to 1300 participants (fifth-graders and their parents), as well as tests to assess children's informal reasoning. In line with theoretical assumptions, results revealed significant associations between both parenting practices and children's skills in evaluating reasons. However, the mediation role of family communication patterns was confirmed only for conformity-orientation. The implications are discussed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Numerous studies have reported substantive correlations between indicators of parenting, children's emotion regulation (ER), and children's psychosocial adjustment. However, studies on underlying mechanisms are scarce. Particularly in early adolescence, it is still unclear whether relations between parenting and ER are caused by adolescent behavior, by parent behavior, or by reciprocal processes. Moreover, it is unclear whether ER can be seen as an antecedent or a consequence of psychosocial adjustment. The aim of this study was to examine predictive relations among parenting and adolescents' ER, and adolescents' ER and psychosocial adjustment, respectively. We collected longitudinal, multiple informant data at two measurement occasions (Grade 6, Grade 7). All told, 1,100 adolescents (10-14 years) and their parents filled out questionnaires assessing responsiveness and psychological control, adolescents' anger regulation, and adolescents' problem and prosocial behavior. Cross-lagged analyses revealed reciprocal effects between parenting, ER, and adjustment for the parent and boys', but not for the girls', report. Moreover, relations were different for adolescents with versus without clinically elevated symptoms of psychopathology. Our findings support the assumption that reciprocal relations between parenting, ER, and psychosocial adjustment are likely to persist until early adolescence. Nevertheless, the moderating role of gender and psychopathology should be taken into account. Possible reasons for the different findings, and practical implications, are discussed.

This study reports on the development of achievement emotions and coping/emotion regulation in primary to secondary school-aged children and adolescents. Based on two longitudinal cohorts (Grades 2 -5; Grades 4-7), latent growth models were used to analyze the development of achievement emotions and coping strategies separately as well as simultaneously. The results show that enjoyment decreases across grades, whereas boredom increases, with substantial changes between Grade 5 and Grade 7. Consistently, the development of enjoyment is positively associated with the development of problem focused coping and palliative emotion regulation, whereas the development of boredom is positively associated with the development of avoidant coping and anger-related emotion regulation. Moreover, the relation between problem-focused coping and boredom, as well as between avoidant coping and enjoyment, depends on the age group. The results are discussed regarding the organization of learning environments in classes to prevent unfavorable developmental patterns of achievement emotions. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Helicopter parents are parents who monitor their children in all circumstances during their academic careers. Although helicopter parenting has drawn increasing attention in practice and the media in recent years, very few scientific studies exist, and there is currently no valid measuring instrument. To fill this gap, the present article summarizes the identifiable traits of helicopter parenting and develops and validates a German-language questionnaire for collecting data about this phenomenon. Factor analyses show a g-factor and the four subscales of overprotection, over-involvement, autonomy restriction, and external guilt sharing.

The purposes of the present study were to identify factors that explain differences in the quality of home-based parental instruction (PI) and to explore the role of culture by analyzing antecedents of PI in two rather individualistic (Germany) versus collectivistic (Thailand) societies. SEM-analyses based on data from 288 German parent-child dyads and 494 dyads from Thailand were conducted in order to investigate, whether variables derived from a modified and extended version of the model of Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2005) can be assessed reliably and validly in both samples and possess comparable predictive power. Overall, the results suggest that the newly developed instruments are applicable in both cultures. Nevertheless, it seems that motivational beliefs, role conceptions, and interpersonal conditions may affect PI in a somewhat different way depending on culture. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights resented.

Communication between parents and their children represents an important factor of family socialization. Nevertheless, little is known about why parents communicate in different ways and how these qualitative differences in parent–child communication may affect the child. Building on self-determination theory, the present study focuses on motivational antecedents of need-supportive communication as a function of parental child-related beliefs (i.e., long-term goals that parents have set for their children’s future, and parental child-related behavior expectations in terms of parental dissatisfaction or satisfaction with child behavior). Moreover, the effect of perceived need-supportive communication on children’s prosocial behavior and (externalizing and internalizing) behavioral difficulties will be addressed. Three waves of data from 1125 mothers and adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years were analyzed using growth-curve modeling. We found linearly increasing trajectories in extrinsic parental goals for children and dissatisfaction with child behavior, and decreasing trajectories of need-supportive communication. Individual differences do not vary significantly over time. In addition, holding extrinsic parental goals for children positively predicts parents’ dissatisfaction with their child’s behavior and negatively predicts need-supportive communication. Parents’ dissatisfaction with their child’s behavior also contributes to decreasing need-supportive communication. As expected, need-supportive communication predicts prosocial behavior and externalizing behavioral difficulties. When need-supportive communication decreases over time, both externalizing and internalizing behavioral difficulties increase. Furthermore, the effect of mothers beliefs on adolescents socioemotional development was mediated through perceived mother’s communication quality. These results suggest that parental child-related beliefs are important motivational antecedents of parent–child communication that may prevent behavioral difficulties.