Parental Autonomy Support in the Context of Parent–Child Negotiation for Children’s Independent Mobility: ‘I Always Feel Safer With My Parents’ to ‘Boom! Bust Down Those Walls!’

Abstract

Autonomy – acting volitionally with a sense of choice – is a crucial right for children. Given parents’ pivotal position in their child’s autonomy development, we examined how parental autonomy support and children’s need for autonomy were negotiated and manifested in the context of children’s independent mobility – children’s ability to play, walk or cycle unsupervised. We interviewed 105 Canadian children between 10 and 13-years-old and their parents ( n = 135) to examine child-parents’ negotiation patterns as to children’s independent mobility. Four patterns emerged, varying on parental autonomy support and children’s need/motivation for independent mobility: (1) child/parent dyad wants to increase independent mobility; (2) child only wants to increase independent mobility while parents do not; (3) child does not want to increase independent mobility while parents do; and (4) child/parent dyad does not want to increase independent mobility. Findings illuminate the importance of recognizing children as active and capable agents of change.