Rethinking Autonomy:Fostering Academic Success and Well-Being among Youth and Young Adults.

[摘要] The current study incorporated both empowerment and ecological perspectives into existing theoretical models employed in the investigation of autonomy to gain a better understanding of social mechanisms that may serve to promote academic success and well-being among adolescents. Findings from the empirical portion of this dissertation confirmed previous research attesting to the importance of autonomy to adolescents’ well-being and academic success. In contrast to previous studies which have largely focused on the behavioral dimension of autonomy (i.e. self-regulation, intrinsically motivated behaviors), these studies added to previous research by providing evidence that adolescents’ feelings of autonomy (operationalized in terms of perceived control) predict their well-being and academic success over time.Overall, study findings demonstrated that adolescents’ feelings of autonomy may help to explain the association not only between parenting (at the micro-social level), but also between neighborhood conditions (at the macro-social level) and adolescents’ outcomes. In addition to the typically observed associations between parental control and adolescents’ sense of autonomy, this study indicated that parents’ own sense of autonomy may be an important, previously unexamined, aspect of parenting related to adolescents’ sense of autonomy. When controlling for the association between parenting and adolescents’ feelings of autonomy, neighborhood conditions were further related to adolescents’ sense of autonomy, thus providing evidence of environmental influence on adolescent autonomy outside the typically investigated micro-social contexts. Moreover, results indicated that the association between neighborhood conditions and adolescents’ sense of autonomy varied according to family wealth, further suggesting that structural inequalities at the societal level may have implications for the processes by which adolescent autonomy relates to their psychological and academic trajectories. In consideration of those factors which may support adolescent autonomy, study findings additionally indicated that social capital in both the family and school contexts is important to adolescents’ sense of control over graduating from college. Importantly, this sense of control seems to be paramount to adolescents’ valuing of higher education in predicting adolescents’ future educational plans. Implications of these findings for understanding adolescent autonomy and how best to support adolescent well-being and academic success as they move into young adulthood are discussed.

[发布机构] University of Michigan

[效力级别] Perceived Control

[关键词] Autonomy;Perceived Control;Adolescent;Well-being;Academic Success;Longitudinal;Education;Psychology;Social Work;Social Sciences;Social Work and Psychology