Longitudinal associations between autonomy support, help seeking, and achievement

Abstract

Drawing from self-determination theory and self-regulation theory, this study applied cross-lagged panel model to investigate the longitudinal relationships between teacher and parent autonomy support, help seeking, and mathematics achievement. A sample of 1055 eighth-grade students in China participated. With two waves of data collected over the course of one school year, the study revealed positive reciprocal effects between (a) teacher autonomy support and achievement, and (b) teacher autonomy support and help seeking. Furthermore, higher prior help seeking led to higher subsequent parent autonomy support while higher prior achievement resulted in higher subsequent help seeking. This study extends extant literature, by simultaneously examining and differentiating the bidirectional relationships between two sources of autonomy support – teacher and parent – help seeking, and achievement.