PARENTAL AUTONOMY SUPPORT AND ADOLESCENTS’ ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE US AND CHINA: MODERATING ROLE OF PARENT-ORIENTED SELF-CONSTRUAL

Abstract

Parental autonomy support has been well studied on in past literature, but there has been some controversy due to the inconsistency of the effects of antisocial behaviour on developmental outcomes in different contexts. This current longitudinal research explores the moderating role of adolescents’ inclusion of their parents in their self-concepts, referred to as parent-oriented self-construal, on the effects of parental autonomy support on subsequent antisocial behaviour in the United States and China. This three-wave study was conducted on early adolescents at seventh grade, with 420 from the United States and 514 from China reporting their perceived parental autonomy support, parent-oriented self-construal and antisocial behaviour. The results revealed that the effect of parental autonomy support on adolescents’ subsequent antisocial behaviour was conditional on their parent-oriented self-construal in both cultures. Parental autonomy support protected adolescents from engaging in heightened antisocial behaviours over time when adolescents in the United States were low in parent-oriented self-construal and when adolescents in China were high in parent-oriented self-construal. The findings provided insights regarding parent-oriented self-construal and the differing moderation effects of parental autonomy support in different cultures, improving the understanding of the facilitation of children’s development during adolescence.