The Relation of Connection, Regulation, and Support for Autonomy to Adolescents'Functioning

Abstract

How is adolescent functioning related to experiences of connection, regulation, and supportfor autonomy at home, in school, and with peers? Using datafrom the Maryland Adolescent Growth in Context (MAGIC) study (an ongoing longitudinal study of 1,387 African Amenrican and European American adolescents and theirfamilies), it was found that: (a)family demographic characteristics helped predict only academicperformance; (b) although positive experiences on one indicator predicted positive experiences on the other two, each of the three types of experience explained a unique amount of variance in adolescentfunctioning (e.g., regulation related most strongly to externalizing behaviors; in contrast, supportfor autonomy related to all aspects offunctioning); (c) although adolescents with positive interactions in one context were likely to have positive interactions in the other contexts, characteristics of each context explained unique amounts of variance infifuctioning (e.g., experiences with siblings emerged as uniquely important predictors of mental health).