Interrelationship of adolescent autonomy, parental involvement and scholastic

The following study asks questions addressing differences in adolescents' levels of autonomy as a function of parenting and parental involvement practices and year-end averages. The construct of autonomy addresses the adolescents' psychosocial maturity. Using data from 872 adolescents living in Quebec, the authors found that: (a) adolescents' autonomy and more specifically, work orientation followed by self-reliance and identity, individually contributed to the prediction of school grades; (b) parental warmth, supervision, psychological autonomy granting and affective support show a positive relationship with work orientation; parent-adolescent interactions on daily school matters are negatively related to autonomy, work orientation and identity; (c) autonomy, and mainly, work orientation and self-reliance act as mediators between parenting, parental involvement and school grades. Thus, adolescents who perceive their parents as expressing warmth and affective support, as monitoring adequately, and as encouraging them to express individuality within the family are more likely to work harder, to experience satisfaction in well-done work, to show initiative, and to succeed better Ban their peers. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the possible reciprocal relation between adolescents' autonomy and parenting.