The Effects of Maternal Parenting Behaviors and Middle School Students’ Self-Determination Motivation on Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effects of maternal parenting behaviors and middle school students’ self-determination motivation on self-regulated learning. We also aimed to explore the mediating effects of self-determination motivation between maternal parenting behaviors and middle school students’ self-regulated learning.Methods: A total of 306 middle school students (91 males and 215 females) participated in this study. They responded to questions regarding their mothers’ parenting behaviors (i.e., warmth-rejection, autonomy support-coercion, and structure-chaos), their self-determination motivation and self-regulated learning (i.e., cognitive regulation, motivational regulation, and behavioral regulation). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The bootstrapping method was used to examine whether the mediating effect of self-determination motivation was significant.Results: First, maternal parenting behaviors did not have a direct effect on middle school students’ self-regulated learning. Second, maternal parenting behaviors had an indirect effect on self-regulated learning through middle school students’ self-determination motivation. Consequently, the more positive the mother’s parenting behaviors were, the higher the middle school student’s self-determination motivation, which led to higher self-regulated learning.Conclusion: Findigns from this study highlight that in present society where pressure for academic achievement is great, voluntary participation with interest-based learning can result in increase of the efficiency and production of learning in middle school students. These findings can be utilized in a development of self-regulated learning programs for adolescents or parent education programs to improve the learning environment for students. This study contributed to the field by examining effects of both positive and negative parenting behaviors on cognitive, motivational, and behavioral aspects of self-regulated learning.