The how and the why of study choice processes in higher education: The role of parental involvement and the experience of having an authentic inner compass

Bedouin mothers' sense of authentic inner compass as a parenting resource: Relations with autonomy-supportive parenting and adolescents' well-being

INTRODUCTION

Sense of authentic inner compass (AIC) is the feeling that one knows what is important to oneself because one has values, aspirations, and goals with which one deeply identifies. Past research demonstrated the benefits of AIC, but there is no published research on parental dispositions promoting youth AIC. To increase knowledge of this issue, we examined whether mothers' sense of AIC is associated with a corresponding sense of AIC in their children, and explored autonomy-supportive child-rearing practices that may serve as pathways linking mothers' AIC with adolescents' AIC and subsequent well-being. We examined a Bedouin Israeli sample because it represents a fairly patriarchal, autonomy-eschewing, context, where the benefits of mothers' authenticity and autonomy-support are not obvious.

METHOD

One hundred and thirty-six mothers (Mean age = 44.33, SD = 5.22) and their children (Mean age = 13.79, SD = 0.45; 60% females) participated in a study conducted in June 2019.

RESULTS

SEM analyses supported a model where mothers' sense of firm AIC was linked with adolescents' sense of firm AIC via adolescents' experience of their mothers as using the practices of inherent value demonstration and fostering inner valuing. Adolescent reported AIC in turn was associated with adolescents reported vitality and low levels of depressive symptoms. Mothers' AIC was associated with minimal use of conditional regard, which was negatively associated with depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Results suggest that mothers' AIC may be an important parenting resource, enabling mothers to convincingly demonstrate their values, as well as foster children's attunement to their authentic preferences, even in patriarchal-hierarchical contexts.

Psychological need fulfillment as a source of resilience: Its protective role in concerns and symptoms of anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic

The essential role of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in well-being has been demonstrated convincingly. Yet whether their fulfillment also serves as a source of resilience in the face of adversity has received limited attention. A longitudinal sample of Belgian citizens (N = 1869; Mage = 56.23, 68% female) completed an online questionnaire on 13 occasions between April 2020 and April 2022 during the COVID-19 crisis. Multilevel analyses showed that need fulfillment, both at the between- and within-person level, related negatively to concerns, even after controlling for exposure to personal risks. Further, the association between concerns and changes in symptoms of depression and anxiety was dampened when people reported higher need fulfillment compared with others (i.e. between-person level) or when they reported periodically more need fulfillment than usual (i.e. within-person level). This moderation effect occurred on top of the systematic negative main effect of need fulfillment on symptoms of anxiety and depression. Psychological need fulfillment serves as a resilience factor (a) by reducing concerns in the face of adverse events (i.e. an appraisal effect) and (b) by mobilizing resources that help individuals to deal better with concerns (i.e. a coping effect). Theoretical and practical implications of the resilience effect of need fulfillment are discussed.