Using the perspective of self-determination theory, we examined college students’ motivation orientation as a mediator of the relationship between parenting style and life satisfaction or GPA. The sample was drawn from a medium size university in the northeast of the USA (N = 432). While controlling for gender, age, and ethnicity, we used structural equation modeling and found that all three motivation types (intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation) act as partial mediators of the relationship between authoritative parenting and life satisfaction, whereas amotivation acts as a partial mediator of the relationship between authoritarian parenting and life satisfaction. Although we did not find support that motivation types act as mediators between perceived parenting style and GPA, we did find that the external and the introjected motivations, as well as the intrinsic motivation to know significantly and negatively correlate with GPA, whereas the identified extrinsic motivation and the intrinsic motivation to accomplish significantly and positively correlate with GPA. Our results imply that both perceived parenting style and motivation types are important and inter-related factors for the wellbeing and performance of college students.

中文翻译：

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大学生感知教养方式、学业成就与生活满意度：动机取向的中介作用

我们使用自我决定理论的视角，考察了大学生的动机取向作为父母教养方式与生活满意度或 GPA 之间关系的中介。样本来自美国东北部的一所中等规模的大学（N = 432）。在控制性别、年龄和种族的同时，我们使用结构方程模型发现，所有三种动机类型（内在、外在和无动机）都是权威教养与生活满意度之间关系的部分中介，而无动机则是部分专制养育与生活满意度之间关系的中介。虽然我们没有发现动机类型在感知养育方式和 GPA 之间起到中介作用的支持，但我们确实发现外在动机和内在动机，以及内在动机与 GPA 显着负相关，而确定的外在动机和内在动机与 GPA 显着正相关。我们的结果表明，感知的养育方式和动机类型都是影响大学生幸福感和表现的重要且相互关联的因素。