Empowering Growth: Unveiling Maternal and Paternal Roles in Adolescent Development Within an Autonomy-Supportive Framework

Abstract

This research investigates the effects of maternal and paternal inducement on teenage personal development, with emphasis on autonomy-supportive parenting. It seeks to establish how parents' different behaviors like facilitation, encouragement, modeling, and rewarding affect adolescent development. Autonomy-supportive parenting is very important in building intrinsic motivation and self-actualization, according to Self-Determination Theory. While maternal participation has been found to be essential in adolescent growth, paternal inducement remains poorly understood. The current research explores whether paternal and maternal inducement both make unique contributions to adolescent personal growth and to what extent demographic variables influence such outcomes. Regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between parental behaviors and adolescent development. Parental facilitation, encouragement, modeling, and rewarding were some of the predictors that were evaluated. Demographic variables like gender, maternal education, family structure, and socioeconomic status were also evaluated. Findings show that maternal inducement plays a considerable role in personal growth, specifically through facilitation and encouragement, while paternal inducement plays no significant role. Notably, maternal and paternal rewarding behavior were negatively correlated with personal growth, indicating that overdependence on external rewards might inhibit self-directed growth. Autonomy, self-acceptance, and emotion regulation also were identified as predictors of adolescent personal development. Gender differences were also noted, with females showing more personal growth than males. Furthermore, greater maternal education was negatively correlated with personal growth, perhaps because higher academic expectations restricted autonomy. Parenting interventions need to encourage autonomy-supportive practices among both parents. Schools and policymakers need to promote increased paternal involvement to counterbalance parental influence. Cultural and socioeconomic influences on parenting and adolescent development need to be studied in future research.