Supporting Children’s Autonomy Early On

Abstract There is a growing scientific interest regarding the importance of parental autonomy support (AS) in early childhood. The purpose of this chapter is to review studies on this topic, describe how parental AS toward young children (i.e., infants, toddlers, and preschoolers) has been measured, and document what child characteristics and outcomes have been associated with it. The chapter reviews studies whose AS measure was consistent with self-determination theory’s conceptualization and organizes them by the social context in which it was assessed: play, conversation, help provision, and socialization. After describing each study’s procedure, AS operationalization, and main results, the chapter addresses conceptual issues that should be considered in future studies.