Interrelationship of adolescent autonomy, parental involvement and scholastic

The following study asks questions addressing differences in adolescents' l evels of autonomy as a function of parenting and parental involvement pract ices and year-end averages. The construct of autonomy addresses the adolesc ents' psychosocial maturity. Using data from 872 adolescents living in Queb ec, the authors found that: (a) adolescents' autonomy and more specifically , work orientation followed by self-reliance and identity, individually con tributed to the prediction of school grades; (b) parental warmth, supervisi on, psychological autonomy granting and affective support show a positive r elationship with work orientation; parent-adolescent interactions on daily school matters are negatively related to autonomy, work orientation and ide ntity; (c) autonomy, and mainly, work orientation and self-reliance act as mediators between parenting, parental involvement and school grades. Thus, adolescents who perceive their parents as expressing warmth and affective s upport, as monitoring adequately, and as encouraging them to express indivi duality within the family are more likely to work harder, to experience sat isfaction in well-done work, to show initiative, and to succeed better Ban their peers. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the possible recipr ocal relation between adolescents' autonomy and parenting.