Parental Autonomy Granting and Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Roles of Emotional Self-Efficacy and Future Orientation

Recent theories and studies have provided evidence that parental autonomy granting is linked to adolescents’ life satisfaction, but very few studies have investigated this relationship in Chinese cultural contexts. Additionally, the potential mechanisms underlying this relationship are not comprehensively understood. This study examined whether autonomy granting parenting practice promoted adolescents’ life satisfaction and whether this link was mediated by emotional self-efficacy and future orientation among 795 Chinese junior high school, senior high school, and college students (59.87% girls). Based on a longitudinal design, autonomy granting parenting practice and emotional self-efficacy were assessed at Time 1, and future orientation and life satisfaction were assessed at Time 2. Structural equation modeling revealed that autonomy granting parenting practice was directly related to adolescents’ life satisfaction and indirectly through both emotional self-efficacy and future orientation. Furthermore, the effects of these mediators differed across the various stages of adolescence. Specially, for college students, self-efficacy in expressing positive emotions independently mediated the relationship between parental autonomy granting and life satisfaction. For senior high school and college students, self-efficacy in managing negative emotions and future orientation sequentially mediated this relationship. In addition, future orientation also mediated the relationship between autonomy granting and life satisfaction; however, the mediating effect of future orientation differed in direction for the junior and senior high school samples. These findings highlight the importance of providing adolescents with autonomy and targeting specific mediating factors to enhance life satisfaction of individuals at different stages of adolescence.