Autonomy-Supportive Parenting and Autonomy-Supportive Sibling Interactions: the Role of Mothers’ and Siblings’ Psychological Need Satisfaction

Autonomy-supportive parenting yields manifold benefits. to gain more insight into the family-level dynamics involved in autonomy-supportive parenting,the present study addressed three issues. first,on the basis of self-determination theory,we examined whether mothers’ satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy,competence,and relatedness related to autonomy-supportive parenting. second,we investigated maternal autonomy support as an intervening variable in the mother–child similarity in psychological need satisfaction. third,we examined associations between autonomy-supportive parenting and autonomy-supportive sibling interactions. participants were 154 mothers (m age = 39.45,sd = 3.96) and their two elementary school-age children (m age = 8.54,sd = 0.89 and m age = 10.38,sd = 0.87). although mothers’ psychological need satisfaction related only to maternal autonomy support in the younger siblings,autonomy-supportive parenting related to psychological need satisfaction in both siblings and to an autonomy-supportive interaction style between siblings. we discuss the importance of maternal autonomy support for family-level dynamics. © 2015,© 2015 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc.