Internalizing Mental Health Disorders: Examining the Connection Between Children's Symptoms and Parent Involvement and Autonomy Support.

<p>The primary purpose of this study is to examine the connection between parent involvement and autonomy support, as well as the combined construct of autonomy supportive parent involvement, with internalized mental health symptoms. A secondary purpose of this study is to determine how certain parent demographics relate to attitudes and behaviors towards both parent involvement and autonomy support. Similarly, this study seeks to examine how certain how student demographics relate to internalized mental health symptoms.</p><p>The participants in this study were parents with one or more children in grades K-8 at three different schools in the suburbs of a large Midwestern city. Participants completed an online survey consisting of Grolnick, Deci, and Ryan's (1997) Perceptions of Parents Scale (POPS), Epstein and Salina's (1993) School and Family Partnerships: Survey of Parents of Elementary and Middle Grades, and Thomas Achenbach's (2001) Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for Ages 6-18. The results of this study indicate that a significant relationship does not exist between parent involvement and internalized mental health symptoms. Similarly, a significant relationship does not exist between autonomy support and internalized mental health symptoms. These results of this study refutes the common concern noted by school personnel that over-involved parents lead to higher anxiety levels in students.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2010

Author dc:creator

• Walsh, Anne

• autonomy support
• internalizing disorders
• parent involvement
• Student Counseling and Personnel Services

Repository record dc:identifier

https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/245

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.luc.edu:luc_diss-1244