1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The present thesis [by articles] sought to enrich the parenting literature by exploring what autonomy-supportive parenting practices are used by parents of toddlers in a socialization context (Study 1) and by examining the factors that may hinder their use (Study 2).» (p. iv)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«Although this study is exploratory, we hypothesized that the AS [autonomy support] factor would include practices related to empathy, as parents of young children can show sensitivity and responsiveness, akin to AS [...]. However, we had no specific prediction about the use of rationales, choices, and “non-controlling” language, as they may not all be developmentally appropriate for toddlers. Finally, we expected that some practices falling outside of the classical AS definition could be identified as autonomy-supportive, but no specific hypotheses were made in regards to the nature of these practices.» (p. 29)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
The sample of both articles is composed of 182 parents of toddlers living in the Greater Montreal Area.

Instruments :
Questionnaires

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

In the first article, results showed that «[e]ight practices were identified as being autonomy-supportive: four forms of communicating empathy, providing short rationales, explaining why the task is important, giving an informational and neutral description of the problem, and modeling the desired behaviour. The set of eight practices was positively associated with toddlers’ level of internalization, further suggesting that they embodied the concept of AS. [Results from the second study showed] greater child negative affectivity was associated with greater parental stress, which in turn predicted lower parental AS. Moreover, parental stress partially mediated the positive relationship between child effortful control and parental AS.» (p. iv-v) General conclusions points out that «[p]arenting behaviours are influenced by a wide range of factors and the stressors under which parents function on a daily basis have been shown to make it harder to preserve an autonomy-supportive stance. Since AS been proven to be beneficial for child development, it seems key to study how it may be provided early in children’s lives and to help parents in creating and maintaining autonomy-supportive contexts. Exploring AS across various contexts (such as when giving requests) seems essential to help parents and other agents of socialization satisfy children’s basic need for autonomy, particularly during the determinant developmental period of toddlerhood.» (p. 133)