Abstract
Adolescents’ autonomy is considered to be shaped within family and peer contexts. However, the specific dynamics of the within-person associations between parental autonomy support, adolescents’ general autonomy, and peer resistance over time remain unclear. To address this, random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were employed in a sample of 290 Dutch youth in early adolescence (Mage = 11.58, SD = 0.44 at T1; 49.3% boys) and 220 Dutch youth in middle to late adolescence (Mage = 17.79, SD = 1.47 at T1; 25.0% boys), who were followed over two years across four time points. Results showed that changes in adolescents’ general autonomy were concurrently associated with changes in their parental autonomy support and peer resistance at the within-person level. However, these associations were not observed longitudinally over a six-month period. These findings suggest that increases in supportive parenting and peer resistance co-occur with increases in adolescents’ autonomy within individuals.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, J. P., & Loeb, E. L. (2015). The autonomy-connection challenge in adolescent-peer relationships. Child Development Perspectives, 9, 101–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12111.
Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323–370. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323.
Beck, A. T. & Young, J. E. In Barlow. D.H (Ed.) 1985). Depression. Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment manual. (pp. 206–244). New York: Guilford Press.
Bell, N. J., & Baron, E. K. (2015). Resistance to peer influence during adolescence: Proposing a sociocultural-developmental framework. New Ideas in Psychology, 39, 53–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2015.07.005.
Bernasco, E. L., van der Graaff, J., Nelemans, S. A., Kaufman, T. M. L., & Branje, S. (2023). Depression socialization in early adolescent friendships: The role of baseline depressive symptoms and autonomous functioning. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 52(7), 1417–1432. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01776-9.
Branje, S. (2018). Development of parent–adolescent relationships: Conflict interactions as a mechanism of change. Child Development Perspectives, 12, 171–176. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12278.
Branje, S., de Moor, E. L., Spitzer, J., & Becht, A. I. (2021). Dynamics of identity development in adolescence: A decade in review. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 31, 908–927. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12678.
Browne, W. J., & Draper, D. (2006). A comparison of Bayesian and likelihood-based methods for fitting multilevel models. Bayesian Analysis, 1, 473–514. https://doi.org/10.1214/06-BA117.
Chan, S. M., & Chan, K.-W. (2013). Adolescents’ susceptibility to peer pressure. Youth & Society, 45, 286–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X11417733.
Cheung, G. W., & Lau, R. S. (2008). Testing mediation and suppression effects of latent variables. Organizational Research Methods, 11, 296–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428107300343.
Crone, E. A., van Duijvenvoorde, A. C. K., & Peper, J. S. (2016). Annual research review: Neural contributions to risk-taking in adolescence - developmental changes and individual differences. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57, 353–368. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12502.
Curran, P. J., & Bollen, K. A. (2001). The best of both worlds: Combining autoregressive and latent curve models. In L. M. Collins & A. G. Sayer (Eds.), New methods for the analysis of change (pp. 107–135). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10409-004.
De Goede, I. H. A., Branje, S. J. T., Delsing, M. J. M. H., & Meeus, W. H. J. (2009). Linkages over time between adolescents’ relationships with parents and friends. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38, 1304–1315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9403-2.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). Commentaries on “The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior”. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 269–318. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_02.
Defoe, I. N., Keijsers, L., Hawk, S. T., Branje, S., Dubas, J. S., Buist, K., Frijns, T., Aken, M., Koot, H. M., Lier, P. A. C., & Meeus, W. (2013). Siblings versus parents and friends: longitudinal linkages to adolescent externalizing problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54, 881–889. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12049.
DiGuiseppi, G. T., Meisel, M. K., Balestrieri, S. G., Ott, M. Q., Cox, M. J., Clark, M. A., & Barnett, N. P. (2018). Resistance to peer influence moderates the relationship between perceived (but not actual) peer norms and binge drinking in a college student social network. Addictive Behaviors, 80, 47–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2017.12.020.
Fan, X., Thompson, B., & Wang, L. (1999). Effects of sample size, estimation methods, and model specification on structural equation modeling fit indexes. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6, 56–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540119.
Fousiani, K., Van Petegem, S., Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., & Chen, B. (2014). Does parental autonomy support relate to adolescent autonomy? An in-depth examination of a seemingly simple question. Journal of Adolescent Research, 29, 299–330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558413502536.
Giletta, M., Choukas-Bradley, S., Maes, M., Linthicum, K. P., Card, N. A., & Prinstein, M. J. (2021). A meta-analysis of longitudinal peer influence effects in childhood and adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 147, 719–747. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000329.
Hamaker, E., Kuiper, R. M. & & Grasman, R. (2015). A critique of the cross-lagged panel model. Psychological Methods, 20, 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038889.
Jackson, S., & Goossens, L. (2007). The many faces of adolescents autonomu: Parent-adolescent conflict, behavioral decision-making, and emotional distancing. In S. Jackson & L. Goossens (Eds.), Handbook of Adolescent Development (pp. 135–149). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203969861.
Kaufman, T. M. L., Kretschmer, T., Huitsing, G., & Veenstra, R. (2019). Caught in a vicious cycle? Explaining bidirectional spillover between parent-child relationships and peer victimization. Development and Psychopathology, 32, 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579418001360.
Kerr, M., & Stattin, H. (2000). What parents know, how they know it, and several forms of adolescent adjustment: Further support for a reinterpretation of monitoring. Developmental Psychology, 36, 366–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.36.3.366.
Keskin, G., & Branje, S. (2022). Longitudinal relations between maternal and adolescent emotion dysregulation and maternal autonomy support. Journal of Adolescence, 94, 811–828. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12065.
Kiang, L., & Bhattacharjee, K. (2019). Developmental change and correlates of autonomy in Asian American adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 410–421. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0909-3.
Laninga-Wijnen, L., & Veenstra, R. (2023). Peer similarity in adolescent social networks: Types of selection and influence, and factors contributing to openness to peer influence. In B. Halpern-Felsher (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health (pp. 196-206). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818872-9.00047-9
Laursen, B., & Veenstra, R. (2023). In defense of peer influence: The unheralded benefits of conformity. Child Development Perspectives, 17, 74–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12477.
Levey, E. K. V., Garandeau, C. F., Meeus, W., & Branje, S. (2019). The longitudinal role of self-concept clarity and best friend delinquency in adolescent delinquent behavior. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 1068–1081. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-00997-1.
Lisinskiene, A., Huml, M., & Lochbaum, M. (2020). Discriminant validity of the positive and negative processes in the C–A–P Questionnaire. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 17. https://doi.org/10.14198/jhse.2022.172.10
Little, R. J. A. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 83, 1198–1202. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1988.10478722.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K.-T., & Wen, Z. (2004). In search of golden rules: comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler’s (1999) findings. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 11, 320–341. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1103_2.
Masselink, M., Van Roekel, E., Hankin, B. L., Keijsers, L., Lodder, G. M. A., Vanhalst, J., Verhagen, M., Young, J. F., & Oldehinkel, A. J. (2018). The longitudinal association between self–esteem and depressive symptoms in adolescents: Separating between–person effects from within–person effects. European Journal of Personality, 32, 653–671. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2179.
Meeus, W. (2018). Adolescent development: Longitudinal research into the self, personal relationships and psychopathology (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429465338
Meeus, W., van de Schoot, R., Keijsers, L., & Branje, S. (2012). Identity statuses as developmental trajectories: A five-wave longitudinal study in early-to-middle and middle-to-late adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41, 1008–1021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-011-9730-y.
Mercer, N., Crocetti, E., Branje, S., van Lier, P., & Meeus, W. (2017). Linking delinquency and personal identity formation across adolescence: Examining between- and within-person associations. Developmental Psychology, 53, 2182–2194. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000351.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998). Mplus User’s Guide. 8th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén. 2020.
Orth, U., Clark, D. A., Donnellan, M. B. & Robins, R. W. (2021). Testing prospective effects in longitudinal research: Comparing seven competing cross-lagged models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120, 1013–1034. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000358.
Pan, Y., Gauvain, M., & Schwartz, S. J. (2013). Do parents’ collectivistic tendency and attitudes toward filial piety facilitate autonomous motivation among young Chinese adolescents? Motivation and Emotion, 37, 701–711. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-012-9337-y.
Ravindran, N., Hu, Y., McElwain, N. L., & Telzer, E. H. (2020). Dynamics of mother-adolescent and father-Adolescent autonomy and control during a conflict discussion task. Journal of Family Psychology, 34, 312–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000588.
Ren, Y., Chi, X., Bu, H., Huang, L., Wang, S., Zhang, Y., Zeng, D., Shan, H., & Jiao, C. (2023). Warm and harsh parenting, self-kindness and self-judgment, and well-Being: An examination of developmental differences in a large sample of adolescents. Children, 10, 406. https://doi.org/10.3390/children10020406.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68.
Satorra, A., & Bentler, P. M. (2010). Ensuring positiveness of the scaled difference chi-square test statistic. Psychometrika, 75, 243–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-009-9135-y.
Sheldon, K. M., Ryan, R., & Reis, H. T. (1996). What makes for a good day? Competence and autonomy in the day and in the person. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 1270–1279. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672962212007.
Shi, M., & Tan, C. Y. (2021). Parental autonomy-support, parental control, SES, and mathematics achievement: A latent profile analysis. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 35, 535–549. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2020.1752336.
Silk, J. S. (2003). Psychological control and autonomy granting: Opposite ends of a continuum or distinct constructs? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13, 113–128. https://doi.org/10.1111/1532-7795.1301004.
Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., & Van Petegem, S. (Eds.). (2017). Autonomy in Adolescent Development: Towards Conceptual Clarity (1st ed.). Psychology Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315636511
Spear, H. J. & & Kulbok, P. (2004). Autonomy and adolescence: A concept analysis. Public Health Nursing, 21(2), 144–152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0737-1209.2004.021208.x.
Soenens, Bart, & Vansteenkiste, M. (2010). A theoretical upgrade of the concept of parental psychological control: Proposing new insights on the basis of self-determination theory. Developmental Review, 30, 74–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2009.11.001.
Steinberg, L., & Monahan, K. C. (2007). Age differences in resistance to peer influence. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1531–1543. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.43.6.1531.
Steinberg, L., & Morris, A. S. (2001). Adolescent Development. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 83–110. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.83.
Sun, L., Ju, J., Kang, L., & Bian, Y. (2021). More control, more conflicts?” Clarifying the longitudinal relations between parental psychological control and parent‐adolescent conflict by disentangling between‐family effects from within‐family effects. Journal of Adolescence, 93, 212–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2021.11.004.
Van der Giessen, D., Branje, S., & Meeus, W. (2014). Perceived autonomy support from parents and best friends: Longitudinal associations with adolescents’ depressive symptoms. Social Development, 23, 537–555. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12061.
Van der Graaff, J., Branje, S., De Wied, M., & Meeus, W. (2012). The moderating role of empathy in the association between parental support and adolescent aggressive and delinquent behavior. Aggressive Behavior, 38, 368–377. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21435.
Van Lissa, C. J., Keizer, R., Van Lier, P. A. C., Meeus, W. H. J., & Branje, S. (2019). The role of fathers’ versus mothers’ parenting in emotion-regulation development from mid–late adolescence: Disentangling between-family differences from within-family effects. Developmental Psychology, 55, 377–389. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000612.
Van Petegem, S., Vansteenkiste, M., Soenens, B., Beyers, W., & Aelterman, N. (2015). Examining the longitudinal association between oppositional defiance and autonomy in adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 51, 67–74. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038374.
Vrolijk, P., Van Lissa, C. J., Branje, S. J. T., Meeus, W. H. J., & Keizer, R. (2020). longitudinal linkages between father and mother autonomy support and adolescent problem behaviors: between-family differences and within-family effects. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49, 2372–2387. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01309-8.
Wang, J., Kaufman, T., & Branje, S. (2023). Longitudinal associations of parental psychological control and friend support with autonomy during early adolescence. Journal of Research on Adolescence. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12851
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all members of the InTransition project for their support and assistance.
Funding
This research was supported by a grant of the European Research Council (ERC-2017-CoG-773023 INTRANSITION).
Data Sharing and DeclarationData used in this study will not be deposited. The scripts for data analyses and analyses for sensitivity analyses are shared on the project OSF page (https://osf.io/b6zhq).This study was preregistered at https://osf.io/b6zhq.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
J.W. conceived of the study, performed the statistical analyses, interpreted the results, and drafted the manuscript; T.K. guided the data analysis, reviewed and edited the manuscript; S.M. helped revising and editing the manuscript; S.B. designed the larger project, provided feedback on the research questions, hypotheses and analyses, and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethical approval
Data collection procedures were approved by the Faculty Ethics Review Board of the Faculty of Social & Behavioral Sciences of Utrecht University. All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration.
Informed consent
All participants and their parents gave their informed consent to participation.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, J., Kaufman, T., Mastrotheodoros, S. et al. The Longitudinal Associations Between Parental Autonomy Support, Autonomy and Peer Resistance. J. Youth Adolescence 53, 1015–1027 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01915-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01915-2