The Cost of Pushing Too Hard: Academic Self-Efficacy and Self-Alienation Link Achievement-Oriented Parental Psychological Control to Disruptive Behaviors

Editorial reading guide · Independence

Could an adult’s pressure to achieve make a child feel less ownership of their schoolwork?

This article examines how pressure to achieve relates to adolescents’ confidence and sense of ownership of their work. It offers a point of comparison for parents weighing useful structure against pressure that can crowd out a young person’s own judgement.

Who was studied?

Students from grades seven and eight at a public middle school.

Age / stage: Grades 7–8

Read with three questions

1. What does the article establish about how pressure to achieve relates to adolescents’ confidence and sense of ownership of their work?
2. Whose perspective was recorded, and what might an independent observer have described differently?
3. How closely does the population described here match the family or setting you have in mind? The population to compare is students from grades seven and eight at a public middle school.

Keep the limits in view

The measures reflect what respondents reported. Associations alone cannot distinguish the direction of influence or exclude other explanations.