Parents’ School Satisfaction and Academic Socialization Predict Adolescents’ Autonomous Motivation

Abstract

In this mixed-methods study, we used an explanatory sequential design to investigate the processes through which parental involvement influences adolescents’ achievement motivation. One hundred twenty low-income urban parents and their sixth-grade adolescents completed questionnaires, and a subsample of 11 mothers and 11 adolescents were interviewed. Parents’ questionnaires measured their satisfaction with their childhood school experiences, their current academic socialization practices, and their educational aspirations for their adolescents. Adolescents’ questionnaires measured their motivation to achieve to please their family and their autonomous motivation (internal locus of control and internalized value of learning). In Step 1, we conducted quantitative analyses to test two path models from parental school satisfaction to each adolescent autonomous motivation dimension. Results indicated that relations between parents’ school satisfaction and their adolescents’ autonomous motivation are fully mediated by parents’ academic socialization practices and adolescents’ motivation to achieve for their family. In Step 2, we coded interviews and identified themes to help explain how mothers’ memories of their school satisfaction inform their parenting goals and practices, and how adolescents have internalized their parents’ messages and are autonomously motivated to achieve.