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An independent learner is one who actively takes responsibility for his or her own acquisition of knowledge, skills, and expertise. The capacity to self-regulate one's own learning is a necessity for success in higher education. Researchers have found that characteristics of independent learners begin to emerge in young children and continue to develop throughout childhood and adolescence as students grow into self-governing adults. The purpose of this study is to assess students' levels of independent learning attitudes and behaviors and to examine the relationships among parents' actions, family structure, independent learning, and academic achievement. Using a national sample of 10th grade students from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002, several statistical analyses were performed in order to answer these research questions: 1. How do parents' actions relate to children's independent learning characteristics? 2. How do students' independent learning behaviors and attitudes correlate with their academic achievement? 3. How are parents' actions associated with their children's academic achievement? 4. Are single-parent children less likely to have developed characteristics of independent learning by grade 10 than children living with both of their parents? Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to arrange the available variables into appropriate subscales to be used in the statistical procedures for this study. Canonical correlations were used to measure the magnitude of relationships between three pairs of concepts: parents' actions and students' independent learning; students' independent learning and academic achievement; and parents' actions and students' academic achievement. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized model of relationships among parents' actions, students' independent learning behaviors, and academic achievement. Finally, multivariate analysis of variance was used to compare the independent learning scores of students living in four different family structures to determine if a significant difference in the development of independent learning between groups exists. Results suggest actions that parents can take to help their children develop as independent learners and succeed in the academic realm. / Ph. D.

The thesis addressed the saving behaviour of adolescents within the social context of the family, which has received little attention to date. The research regarded adolescent economic socialization and the development of saving behaviour as an integral part of general socialization and adolescent psychological development. The importance of saving was investigated relative to alternative ways for getting larger sums of money. Three large survey studies with adolescents and one survey study with adolescents and their parents were carried out. In Study 1, 470 students between the ages of 11 and 18 took part. The results of this study revealed that adolescents do think of saving as a means of accumulating larger sums of money. Studies 2 and 3 sampled 290 and 443 students between the ages of 11 and 17 and 13 to 14, respectively, providing empirical evidence of adolescents’ endeavour for independence, reflected by their saving motives as well as the changing of their attitudes towards saving as a skill. The thesis examined a number of significant predictors for adolescents’ general tendency to save. The studies linked adolescent saving with home atmosphere and perceived parenting style empirically for the first time. A path model illustrates the associations that were found between the behaviour and attitudes of the parents and the saving behaviour and attitudes of their adolescent child. It demonstrates that the development of saving behaviour is linked to the power relationship between parent and child. The findings support the behavioural life-cycle hypothesis as well as the benefits of being raised in an ‘authoritative home’ with regard to skills in saving.

This study described and explored perceptions of the context and behaviors of seven 4-year-old children whose parents attended a parenting education program. The problem was to explore a group of 9 volunteer parents' perceptions of their parenting styles and perceptions of their 4-year-old children at home while the parents participated in, and completed, a minimum of 4 out of 6 Active Parenting Today parenting education classes. Volunteer parents were recruited during public school registration for prekindergarten. In addition, perceptions of 4 teachers and 4 classroom educational aides in regard to behaviors of the 4-year-old children whose parents participated in and completed the Active Parenting Today program were explored.

The purpose of this study was to test whether parenting style as conceptualized through Self-Determination Theory (SDT) moderates the association between parental monitoring and adolescent problem behavior. Self-reported data from adolescents (n = 242; 49.2% male; M age = 15.4 years) and their parents (n = 276; 70% mothers) were used in the study. Results showed that monitoring through questions, but not through rules, was significantly associated with behavior problems. Adolescent-reported monitoring through questions, but not parent-reported, was linked to less problem behavior. Also, parental autonomy support and involvement were linked to less problem behavior. Results showed that two out of 24 interactions between monitoring and style variables were significant. Specifically, the links between higher adolescent-reported monitoring through questions and parent-reported autonomy support, and between parent-reported monitoring through rules and adolescent-reported structure were significant. However, neither pattern was consistent with expectations.

To extend research on Baumrind’s parenting styles, a scenario study was conducted to determine if the gender of a stimulus child and the parenting style employed by stimulus parents would relate significantly to biblical interpretation style and preferred worship style. A 2x3 independent groups factorial design was employed for analysis in two different procedures. Respondents (152 undergraduate students) were provided with one of six scenarios, each of which varied by gender of stimulus child and by one of three parenting styles employed by the stimulus parent. Respondents were then directed to complete the Scriptural Literalism Scale (Hogge & Friedman, 1967) and the Worship Style Index, which provided measures of biblical interpretation style and worship style respectively. The results suggested that parenting styles relate to how one comes to interpret the Bible and worship style and that gender also relates to worship style. The authoritarian and authoritative parenting styles related more and the permissive parenting style the least to a literal approach to biblical interpretation and to a structured worship style.

Conduct disorder (CD) is prevalent among American teens, yet limited research has been conducted on Hispanics adolescents. Based on social learning theory and parenting theory, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship amongst parenting styles, Hispanic cultural influences, and CD. A sample of 85 parents with adolescents receiving juvenile probation services in South Texas were surveyed to assess their parenting style, Hispanic cultural influences, and their adolescent's symptoms of CD. The Mexican Parent Questionnaire measured the independent variable: parenting styles. The Brief Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II measured the independent variable: Hispanic cultural influences. The dependent variable, CD, was measured by the Assessment of Disruptive Symptoms-DSM-IV-Version. Logistic regression and ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed there was no significant difference in parenting styles, Hispanic cultural practices, and CD. The findings did not show a relationship in parenting style and Hispanic cultural influences with CD. Nonetheless, this study facilitated positive social change by providing research-based information to parents, researchers, and professionals working with adolescent behavior.

Parents remain to be effective in adolescents&rsquo / emotional development. However, emotion socialization research is fundamentally based on studies conducted in infancy through middle childhood, but late childhood and adolescence have been largely ignored. Therefore, the current study aimed to make contribution to the current literature investigating factors associated with adolescents&rsquo / emotion regulation difficulties. As the first part of the study psychometric properties of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) were examined among Turkish adolescent sample. A total of 312 high school students (161 females and 141 males) whose ages ranged between 14 and 17 years participated in the study and findings indicated strong evidence for the utility of the DERS as a measure of emotion regulation difficulties in adolescents. The main study consists of three different purposes. First, discrepancies between mothers&rsquo / and adolescents&rsquo / reports on adolescents&rsquo / emotion regulation difficulties were examined. Second, factors associated with adolescents&rsquo / emotion regulation difficulties such as mothers&rsquo / emotion regulation, psychopathology, and personality traits, maternal rearing behaviors, and adolescents&rsquo / personality traits were explored. Lastly, mediating roles of emotion regulation difficulties on the relationship between adolescents&rsquo / perception of their mothers&rsquo / maternal rearing behaviors and their psychological problems were examined. Participants of this research were 595 first-grade high school students aged between 14 and 16 years, and 365 mothers from eight different high schools in Ankara. Data was collected from both adolescents and their mothers through questionnaire packets. Adolescents&rsquo / questionnaire set consisted of scales measuring emotion regulation difficulties (DERS), positive and negative affect scale (PANAS), maternal rearing behaviors (EMBU), basic personality traits (Big Five), and adolescents&rsquo / externalizing (SDQ) and internalizing symptoms (CDI). Similarly, mothers&rsquo / questionnaire set consisted of scales measuring emotion regulation difficulties (DERS), children&rsquo / s emotion regulation (DERS), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), maternal rearing behaviors (EMBU), and basic personality traits (Big-Five). The results indicated that adolescents, both boys and girls, reported higher levels of difficulties in emotion regulation for themselves as compared to reports of mothers for their children. As expected, adolescents&rsquo / basic personality traits were significantly associated with their emotion regulation difficulties even after controlling the effects of socio-demographic variables, mothers&rsquo / emotion regulation, psychological symptoms and their maternal rearing behaviors. Finally, mediation analyses indicated that the link between perceived maternal rearing behaviors and adolescents&rsquo / psychological problems occurs through emotion regulation difficulties of adolescents. Findings were discussed within the relevant literature.

<p>Traditionally seen as a time for increasing independence and autonomy, the college experience is often the first major, long-term physical separation from parents (Chickering, 1969; Chickering & Reisser, 1993). For previous generations, living away from home provided conditions for autonomy development partially based on infrequent contact with parents. In contrast, the rapid evolution of communication technology in the recent past allows today's generation of college students to connect to their parents instantly and frequently through a variety of electronic means including cellular phone calls, text messages, emails, video chats, and social media. The current study used self-report data from 180 residential college students at a mid-sized private institution in the southeastern United States to explore parent-child communication patterns as they relate to parenting styles and the development of emotional autonomy and adjustment to college. Emotional autonomy was measured with items from the Emotional Autonomy Scale (EAS; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986). Following Beyers, Goossens, Van Calster, & Duriez (2005), a separation scale (derived from the EAS subscales of parental deidealization, nondependence on parents, and individuation) was used as a measure of emotional autonomy. Two scales from the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (Baker & Siryk, 1989) measured students' academic and social adjustment to college.</p><p>Results indicated that, in a given week, students reported an average contact frequency (with both parents combined) of 10.92 cell phone calls, 49.88 text messages, and 6.04 email exchanges. Contact was initiated by students and parents at roughly the same rates, and females had more contact with parents than males, in general. Facebook was more popular than Twitter and Instagram for connecting with parents through social media, and the majority of students felt either neutral or positive about being "Facebook friends" with their parents. Overall, students reported high satisfaction with both the frequency and the quality of communication with their parents. Greater levels of parental closeness significantly predicted higher satisfaction with the parent-child Facebook friendship. </p><p>The relationships between the traditional parenting styles of permissive, authoritative, and authoritarian parenting (Baumrind, 1991) were investigated in relation to communication patterns, autonomy, and adjustment. Helicopter parenting was also included as a predictor variable, though it is considered separate from the traditional parenting styles (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012). Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that parents' higher scores on authoritarian parenting and helicopter parenting predicted more frequent cell phone contact with parents. Parental closeness also emerged as a significant, positive predictor of frequency of cell phone and total communication. Students who talked on their cell phones more frequently overall (not including parental contacts) tended to talk to their parents more often on the phone, and the same went for texting, as well. </p><p>Helicopter parenting also predicted lower emotional autonomy, which was in line with the only previous study of helicopter parenting in emerging adulthood (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012). Surprisingly, authoritative and permissive parenting significantly predicted lower emotional autonomy, while authoritarian parenting was related to greater autonomy. Analyses investigating frequency of cell phone contact with parents as a moderator of this relationship indicated that more frequent phone conversations predicted decreased autonomy when parents were more authoritative. High levels of authoritarian parenting, on the other hand, resulted in higher levels of autonomy regardless of how often students talked on the phone with parents, while high contact with less authoritarian parents predicted decreased autonomy. Frequency of cell phone contact with parents was unrelated to academic and social adjustment to college. Findings are discussed in light of previous research and situated within a framework proposing that technological advances in communication have contributed to lengthening the path to adulthood.</p> / Dissertation

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationships of different types of perceived parenting style and learned resourcefulness. The sample of the study consisted of 834 (360 males, 474 females) volunteered high school students in Yenimahalle Alparslan High School in Ankara. The data were gathered by administering two instruments, namely Parenting Style Inventory (PSI) and Rosenbaum&rsquo / s Self-Control Schedule (SCS). The results of ANOVA employed to learned resourcefulness scores of the students revealed a significant main effect for parenting style groups. Neither the main effect for gender nor the gender and parenting style interaction effect was significant. The results yielded that there were significant differences between those who perceived their parents as authoritative and those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian. Significant differences were also found between those who perceived their parent indulgent and those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian. These findings suggested that those who perceived their parents as authoritative had a relatively high level of learned resourcefulness as compared to those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian. Findings also suggested that those who perceived their parents as indulgent had a higher level of learned resourcefulness than those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian.