This study evaluated the relationship between parental autonomy support and preschool-aged children’s display of autonomy. Specifically, we examined if mothers’ and fathers’ use of positive guidance, negative control, and responsiveness during parent-child interactions predicted children’s autonomous behavior. One hundred families comprised of mothers, fathers, and their children participated. Parent-child dyads were filmed engaging in an unstructured play task and interactions were coded using the Parent-Child Interaction System. Mothers’ use of negative control and father’s use of positive guidance, negative control, and responsiveness predicted children’s displays of autonomy, whereas mothers’ positive guidance and responsiveness did not. The results offer insight into how parents play unique roles in promoting their children’s autonomy, which has implications for practitioners and researchers who work with families. Our findings provide examples of behaviors that parents can employ to promote their children’s autonomy.

本研究评估了父母自主支持与学龄前儿童自主表现之间的关系。具体来说，我们检查了父母在亲子互动中使用积极引导、消极控制和反应是否能预测儿童的自主行为。一百个家庭由母亲、父亲和他们的孩子组成。亲子二人被拍摄参与非结构化的游戏任务，并使用亲子互动系统对互动进行编码。母亲对消极控制的使用和父亲对积极引导、消极控制和反应的使用预测了儿童的自主性表现，而母亲的积极引导和反应则没有。研究结果让我们深入了解父母如何在促进孩子自主方面发挥独特作用，这对与家庭一起工作的从业者和研究人员有影响。我们的研究结果提供了父母可以用来促进孩子自主的行为示例。