Lynch, M.F.

Background. This study used self-determination theory to examine the intergenerational continuity of the social situation of development with a focus on what determines a woman's basic psychological need support for her child.

Objective. To assess the relationship between the basic need support a woman received from her own mother, the woman’s basic need support toward her own child, and the quality of the woman-child interaction.

Design. The scales, "Parent-child interaction" and "Basic Psychological Needs," were administered. Eighty-seven women (29-40 years old) with children age 4-5 years assessed the basic need support provided for them by their mother in childhood and at present, and her estimate of the basic need support she herself provides to her own child. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, factor analysis, and multiple linear regression.

Results. The ratio of levels of basic need support demonstrated continuity across generations. Intergenerational continuity in the child’s basic need support mainly concerns the needs for competence and relatedness: the more they were supported in childhood and are now supported by the woman's mother, the more the woman supports them in her own child today. Such continuity was not found for autonomy support. A woman’s own basic need support by her mother, in childhood and currently, and the woman’s provision of basic need support for her child predicted most of the woman-child interaction parameters.

Conclusion. Intergenerational continuity with respect to provision of basic need support was shown. The woman-child interaction was predicted by basic need support across intergenerational relations.

Background. The Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A) is a useful self-report measure of academic motivation grounded in self-determination theory (E. Deci, R. Ryan). 

Objective. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the utility of the Russian version of the SRQ-A by reporting psychometric properties, examining the factorial structure of the SRQ-A, and assessing its construct validity in a large sample of primary and middle school children.

Design. To validate the Russian version of the SRQ-A, two cross-sectional studies were conducted, one with primary schoolchildren, and the second with middle schoolchildren.

Results. We developed and tested the Russian version of the SRQ-A on a sample of 1215 children, Grades 3-7, from three primary and three secondary (middle) schools in Russia. The multidimensional factorial structure of the original measure was tested with bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (B-ESEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Construct validity was tested using correlational analyses with convergent and divergent measures. The SRQ-A showed good internal consistency for all subscales, with Cronbach’sαranging between 0.65 and 0.77 for the primary school children (Study 1), and 0.74 and 0.82 in a sample from the middle school children (Study 2). In both studies a simplex-structure pattern was confirmed, and the CFA model, with seven first-order factors and two second-order factors for intrinsic regulation and extrinsic regulation, had an acceptable fit. The results of both studies demonstrate that the subscales show good convergent and discriminant validity with respect to basic psychological needs, attitudes toward school, school well-being, and general well-being scales.

Conclusion. In sum, the 26-item Russian SRQ-A is a reliable and valid self-report instrument for the assessment of self-determined types of motivation for primary and middle schoolchildren.