Autonomy support, psychological control, basic psychological needs and the drive for thinness among early adolescents

• Authors: Lucia Barbierik , Mária Bačíková-Šléšková , Oľga Orosová , Jozef Benka

Title variants

SK

Podpora autonómie, psychologická kontrola, základné psychologické potreby a túžba po štíhlosti v ranej adolescencii

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Objectives. This study aims to expand previous research findings by focusing on the mechanism of the frustration and satisfaction of basic psy-chological needs that links parental psychologi-cal control and autonomy support to the drive for thinness as an indicator of disordered eating among early adolescent boys and girls in Slo-vakia. Participants and setting. 443 pupils (47.6% girls) reported on the explored variables in a cross-sectional data collection. Hypotheses. The drive for thinness was hypoth-esised to be (1) negatively associated with the satisfaction of basic psychological needs and (2) positively associated with the frustration of basic psychological needs. Autonomy support from the mother (3) and father (4) was hypoth-esised to be positively related to basic psycho-logical needs satisfaction. Psychological control from the mother (5) and father (6) was hypothe-sised to be positively linked to basic psychologi-cal needs frustration. Autonomy support from the mother (7) and father (8) and psychological control from the mother (9) and father (10) were also hypothesised to be indirectly associated with the drive for thinness. Statistical analysis. Structural equation model-ling was carried out and the model was found to be statistically equivalent for boys and girls.Results. The psychological control from the mother was significantly associated with the frustration of basic psychological needs, which was subsequently associated with the drive for thinness. Autonomy support from the mother and father significantly positively explained the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Limitations. The mediation model was tested using a cross-sectional design. However, the temporal ordering of the examined variables is clear. Furthermore, while the used measures are standardized and widely used abroad, their vali-dation in the population of Slovak adolescents is needed. Other inaccuracies could have been caused by the exclusion of the part of the sample from the analyses and the self-reporting nature of the data.

Keywords

EN

psychological control; autonomy support; early adolescents; drive for thinness; basic psychological needs

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Československá psychologie (Czechoslovak Psychology)
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 212-232
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Lucia Barbierik

• Československá psychologie, redakce, Psychologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Politických vězňů 7, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Mária Bačíková-Šléšková

• Československá psychologie, redakce, Psychologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Politických vězňů 7, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Oľga Orosová

• Československá psychologie, redakce, Psychologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Politických vězňů 7, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

author

Jozef Benka

• Československá psychologie, redakce, Psychologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Politických vězňů 7, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic