In the child development literature, autonomy support
has received relatively less attention compared to structure
and affiliation. Though developmental researchers have
pointed to the detrimental effects of controlling parenting
(Becker 1964; Schaefer 1965), they have paid relatively
little attention to autonomy support, the opposite (and
positive) pole of this dimension. One reason may be the
common misconception of autonomy, where autonomy is
often confused with independence (Ryan et al. 2006; Silk
et al. 2003). Motivation research anchored in self-determination
theory (SDT; Deci and Ryan 1985, 2000; Ryan
and Deci 2000), a prominent theory of human motivation,
helped filled this gap by providing empirical evidence on
the benefits of parental autonomy support.