Perceived Parental Autonomy Support And High School Students’ Family Satisfaction:The Mediating Role Of Filial Efficacy

With the implementation of the Family Education Promotion Law,there is an increasing concern about how to ensure the positive development of family education for minors.Family satisfaction is regarded as an important indicator to assess the effectiveness of family education for minors and is the focus of research in this area.Self-determination theory points out that parental autonomy support is conducive to high school students’ experience of family well-being,but the mechanisms involved are yet to be explored.Social cognitive theory suggests that filial efficacy describes the degree of children’s self-confidence in parent-child relationship management and can provide space for children’s autonomy and active creativity in creating a satisfying family environment.So,can autonomy-supportive parenting increase high school students’ confidence in performing their role functions in the relationship with their parents,thus promoting positive family practices and contributing to family satisfaction?It will be a critical part of exploring the mechanisms that influence the role of their family satisfaction.Based on the perspectives of self-determination theory and social cognitive theory,this study selected some high school students in two regions of Fujian Province as the research subjects and adopted a questionnaire survey research method.In study 1,we revised the overseas filial efficacy scale to form a filial efficacy measurement tool that can be applied to assess the group of high school students in China,so as to provide a basis for the investigation of filial efficacy and related research.In Study 2,the perceived parental autonomy support scale,the family satisfaction scale and the revised Chinese version of the filial efficacy scale were used to further explore the possible mediating role of filial efficacy in the process of parental autonomy support influencing high school students’ family satisfaction,and the main findings are as follows.(1)The Chinese version of the Sense of Filial Efficacy Scale for high school students has13 items containing three dimensions,namely,building positive relationships,managing negative conflicts,and maintaining open communication;the internal consistency reliability and retest reliability of the scale meet psychometric standards;the structural model of the scale fits well and has some convergent and discriminant validity.(2)The filial efficacy dimensions of perceived parental autonomy support,family satisfaction,and building positive relationships and maintaining open communication of high school students were in the middle to upper level,while the filial efficacy dimensions of managing negative conflicts were in the middle to lower level.There were demographically significant differences between perceived parental autonomy support,filial efficacy and family satisfaction by gender,two-parent versus non-parent and mother’s education level.(3)There were significant positive correlations between perceived parental autonomy support,family satisfaction and filial efficacy.After controlling for demographic variables,perceived parental autonomy support had a significant positive predictive effect on both filial efficacy and family satisfaction among high school students,and filial efficacy also had a significant positive predictive effect on family satisfaction.(4)Using gender,both parents,and non-both parents as control variables,there was a significant partially mediated effect of filial efficacy during the effect of perceived parental autonomy support on high school students’ family satisfaction,with the indirect effect accounting for 54.79% of the total effect.