Toddler Temperament, Parent Stress, and Autonomy Support
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Toddler Temperament, Parent Stress, and Autonomy Support Eftichia Andreadakis1 Julie C. Laurin1 Mireille Joussemet ●
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Geneviève A. Mageau1
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© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The present study examined how toddler temperament (negative affectivity, effortful control, and surgency) and parent stress relate to parents’ use of autonomy support (AS) when making requests. Based on past studies pointing to parent stress and toddler difficult temperament as possible risk factors, we proposed a mediation model where toddler temperament was expected to be related indirectly to parents’ use of autonomy-supportive practices via parent stress. Parents (N = 181) reported how often they used autonomy-supportive practices when asking their toddlers (Mage = 27.7 months) to engage in important, yet uninteresting activities. They also answered questions regarding their toddler’s temperament and their own stress levels. A complete mediation hypothesis was supported for negative affectivity but not for the other temperament dimensions. Both toddler negative affectivity and effortful control were indirectly related to parents’ AS, via parent stress. However, effortful control was also directly associated with parent AS over and above parent stress, while surgency was not related to parent stress or parent AS. The present findings underline the need for more research on how to mitigate the impact of difficult temperamental characteristics so as to preserve parents’ support for their toddlers’ need for autonomy. Keywords Toddlers Autonomy support Negative affectivity Effortful control Parent stress ●
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Highlights Parents’ socialization role is key during toddlerhood but it can be challenging. ● Toddler temperament may affect parental stress, known to hinder parenting quality. ● Parents rated how much they use autonomy-supportive practices when making requests. ● Toddler negative affectivity was linked to less autonomy support, via parent stress. ● Toddler effortful control was linked to more autonomy support (directly/indirectly). ●
When parents recognize that their children’s needs and feelings are different from their own, yet respect and support their children’s unique ideas, interests and feelings, and explain why their requested activities are important and meaningful, their parenting would be described as autonomy-supportive (Grolnick et al. 1997; Joussemet et al. 2008a). Autonomy (or self-determination), a fundamental and universal psychological need, is defined as the experience of authentically endorsing and concurring with one’s behaviours (Chirkov and Ryan 2001; Ryan et al. 2016). According to self-determination theory (SDT; Deci and
* Mireille Joussemet [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
Ryan 2000; Ryan and Deci 2017), all individuals benefit from having this need met no matter their age.
Autonomy and Toddlerhoo
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