The Role of Autonomy Support, Research Paper Example

Results

A chi-square test was used to test for the relationship between categorical variables in the study. The study sought to determine the relationship between parental autonomy and children’s performance. The hypothesis of this study is that mothers’ use of control will reduce children’s feeling of autonomy and competence and thus adversely impact academic performance of children.  Conversely, mothers’ use of autonomy support will increase the feeling of competence and get higher school achievement. The hypothesis was tested and analyzed at 5% level of significance. The p-value 0.8333 indicates weak evidence against the null hypothesis, so we failed to reject the null hypothesis at the 5% impact level. Thus, there is no significant relationship between competence involvement and mother involvement. This finding indicates that mother-child involvement differs with child’s competence parents’ times to equip children with skills and knowledge that reduces their competence level.

Correlation on competence level and mother involvement

Fei (2014), who cited that parents differ, supports these findings widely in both their levels and types of involvement in which they engage. When parents are involved, children motivation is reduced, which undermines their creativity and their overallperformance level in school. Ho postulates that there is no significant relationship between competence level and autonomy support, which this study took to task.

Correlation on competency level and autonomy support

The p-value (p-value =0. 003, r=0. 383) has a strong evidence against Ho hence, we reject the null hypothesis. The study reveals that there is a significant relationship between competence level and autonomy support, which indicates a positive relationship between competence level and autonomy support. Moreover, this result implies that general children’s performance is dependent on mother’s autonomy support. Guidance and counseling by mothers are pillars to children’s performance. Ho concluded there is no significant relationship between competence level and grade in reading

Competence level and grade in reading

P-value 0.001, r= 0.420 we reject the null hypothesis, indicate a positive significant relationship between competence level and grade in reading. This implies that competence in reading affects the performance. Reading makes a child comprehend and conceptualize a concept more time increasing the understanding increasing the grade performance.

This study finding agrees with Gillet (2012) who cited that the autonomous involvement of parents in supporting the child’s school performance has been observed to have a psychological impact on their performance.

Autonomy Support and Reading

Gillet (2012) also revealed that mothers’ autonomous involvement brought about significant improvement in the school performances and outcomes of their children. This study concurs with Gilllet as the results suggest that there is a positive relationship between autonomy support and reading capacity.

Ho: There is no significant relationship between autonomy support and math grade

Autonomy Support and Math

P values (0.046) indicate strong evidence against the null hypothesis. This finding indicates that there is a major relationship among the parents’ autonomy and grade in math, which means that autonomy affects math grades of students. The level of conceptualization and comprehension of a maths is affected by parents’ involvement, parent autonomy affecting the performance of a child positively. This finding is further supported by Vallerand (2012) who affirmed that parents play a significant role in the motivation and the level of success in the school work of their children. The autonomous involvement of parents in supporting the child’s school performance has a psychological impact on their performance. Ho there is no significant relationship between parents’ involvement and grade

Mother involvement and math

P-value (0.719) indicates weak evidence against Ho, we fail to reject the null hypothesis and retain it. These indicate that parent involvement does not have a significant relationship with children performance. Parent involvement does not affect performance, basing on Pearson correlation coefficient (-.049) indicate that there is a negative relationship between parent involvement and performance. This fact implies that some of the parents’ activities negatively affect the performance.

Parents  participation affects the performance of their children both in a positive and negative way. Parent’s autonomy is a critical factor in their children’s academicperformance. Parents should closely monitor children’s behavior in orders to provide a solid foundation for a better future for them in the academic arena (Wong, 2008).

Discussion

The objectives of the study were to investigate the effects of ego involvement on mothers’ styles of interacting with the children at the school like tasks, as well as to investigate relations between the contacts and children abilities to learn schoollike information effectively two schoollike tasks in the study were poem and map task.

The variables tested include grade in reading , grade in math, perceived competence academic   PCCOG (continuous), maternal involvement MINV (continuous), and maternal autonomy support MAUT (continuous). Sixty mothers and their children (33 boys and 27 girls) participated in this questionnaire. 2(3.3%) are age 7. 22 (36.1%) are age 8 and 36 (59.0%) of them are age 9. Perceived competence level and mothers involvement do not have significant linear relationship. Perceived competence level and mothers autonomy support have positive relationship. Mothers use of autonomy support will enhance the feeling of competence. Perceived competence level and grade in reading have positive relationship. The more feeling of competence, the grade in reading will be higher as well. Perceived competence level and grade in math have positive relationship. The more feeling of competence, the grade in math will be higher as well. Mothers’ involvement and grade in reading do not have significant linear relationship. Mothers’ involvement and grade in math do not have significant linear relationship. Mothers use autonomy support and grade in Math positive relationship. Mother use autonomy support will get better grade in math. Mothers use autonomy support and grade in Reading positive relationship. Mother use autonomy support will get better grade in math according to the resuls. Thus, mother involvement, according to this study, is insignificant, and the level of involvement is insignificant as well. By contrast, mother autonomy support have positive relationship with competence level and school grade. Parental control over their young children within academic settings adversely impacts performance due to the fact that children develop perfectionist tendencies as a result. Often, perfectionism leads to emotional and psychological concerns for the child that can explain their decreased performance over time.

The findings relate to the idea that in spite of dyads having a history of working as a group on different tasks, the orientation in which the parents operates with their kids impacts their orientation styles (Clark & Ladd, 2000). Specifically, when parents have dedicated their resources towards tests, they offer more controlling behavior to their kids than those parents who invested in their children’s tests. The findings emphasize the need for educators and others that work with families to make sure that parents go through an orientation for working with their kids in which the major focus is not solely on assessment and performance standards.

While the questionnaire results showed that there were significant interactions between the individual differences and condition. Specifically, the interactions showed that the manipulation specifically influenced mothers that attended the sessions with controlling styles. Thus, controlling mothers in the high-pressure condition utilized more intercessions and were rated in the study as more controlling online with nonverbal behavior as compared to mothers that were in any of the other groups. Autonomy-supportive mothers did not seem to be prone to the manipulation. In reality, however, those mothers cultivated autonomy within high-pressure conditions (Wong, 2008). FlorrieFei-Yin Ng et al. (2004) cited that effect of parental control and the autonomy support on school grades. The findings from the questionnaire indicate a significant impact on the child’s performance, which bolsters the aforementioned study. Academic performance of children directly correlate with the level of autonomous support provided byy their parents.  Parents’ autonomy support enhanced the academic performance of children who had previously exhibited poor performance. Gillet, Vallerand &Lafrenière (2012) further points out that mothers’ autonomous involvement brought about significant improvement in the school performance of their children. The maternal autonomous involvement enhanced cognitive competence, personal involvement, and self-worth among the children. The findings of this study thus concurs with Clark & Ladd (2000) who observed that pressure from the mothers could de-motivate and moderate the children’s autonomy, feeling, and lower their self-worth hence bringing about poor performance .

Further studies should be conducted in order to determine the level of parent’s autonomous support, which affects general performance of their in both positive and negative manner. In addition, a study should be carried out in order to segregate autonomy to specific ages for ultimate performance (Clark & Ladd, 2000). Demographic factors such as race/ethnicity and cultural idiosyncrasies need to also be taken into account as well. Nonetheless, this study reveals how maternal autonomy support positively correlates with young students’ self reports of academic performance and their self-regulation.

Limitations of the Study

The study had some limitations due to the fact that it was based on self reporting via filling out the questionnaires. Additionally, the study investigated only one element of maternal behavior, which was that of autonomy support against control. Unquestionably, there existed many other important dimensions in which mothers differ, which include quality of assistance they offer. Finally, this study failed to take into account how cultural values and idiosyncrasies shaped mother/child relationships. It is difficult to treat autonomy versus control in such a homogenous fashion, so more nuance is needed in order to vvalidate the results in such a study in order to establish the cultural impact of parenting styles on young students’ academic performance.

References

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Gillet, N., Vallerand, R. J., &Lafrenière, M. A. K. (2012). Intrinsic and extrinsic school motivation as a function of age: The mediating role of autonomy support. Social Psychology of Education, 15(1), 77-95.

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Katz, I., Kaplan, A., &Buzukashvily, T. (2011). The role of parents’ motivation in students’ autonomous motivation for doing homework.Learning and Individual Differences, 21(4), 376-386.

Whipple, N., Bernier, A., &Mageau, G. A. (2011). A dimensional approach to maternal attachment state of mind: Relations to maternal sensitivity and maternal autonomy support. Developmental Psychology, 47(2), 396.

Wong, M. M. (2008). Perceptions of parental involvement and autonomy support: Their relations with self-regulation, academic performance, substance use and resilience among adolescents. North American Journal of Psychology, 10(3), 497-518.