Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 1 · Licensed source edition
A Little Autonomy Support Goes a Long Way: Daily Autonomy‐Supportive Parenting, Child Well‐Being, Parental Need Fulfillment, and Change in Child, Family, and Parent Adjustment Across the Adaptation to the COVID‐19 Pandemic
Originally published 2021-01-19 · Child Development
Oxford University Press (OUP) · DOI 10.1111/cdev.13515 ↗
Editorial reading guide · Independence
What might offering choices within clear limits look like during a difficult family day?
This study connects everyday choice within limits with parent and child adjustment. It makes autonomy support a concrete family interaction to examine rather than a promise of unrestricted freedom.
Who was studied?
Parents of school-aged children in Germany during COVID-19 school disruption.
Age / stage: 6–19 years
Read with three questions
- How was choice within limits measured in the daily diary?
- Which associations were reciprocal between parental need fulfillment and autonomy support?
- How did parent-only reports and the pandemic setting limit interpretation?
Keep the limits in view
Observational parent reports over three weeks cannot establish that autonomy support caused improved adjustment. The autonomy measure covered choice within limits, not every aspect of autonomy-supportive parenting.
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Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Andreas B. Neubauer; Andrea Schmidt; Andrea C. Kramer; Florian Schmiedek (2021). A Little Autonomy Support Goes a Long Way: Daily Autonomy‐Supportive Parenting, Child Well‐Being, Parental Need Fulfillment, and Change in Child, Family, and Parent Adjustment Across the Adaptation to the COVID‐19 Pandemic Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13515
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.