Objective. This study sought to identify processes linking daily parental need experiences to daily parenting, focusing on the intervening role of parental psychological availability and stress. Design. In total, 206 mothers (Mage = 40.33 years) and 206 fathers (Mage = 42.36 years) and their elementary school child (Mage = 9.93 years; 46.6% female) participated in a 7-day multi-informant diary study. Results. Parents? daily need satisfaction was related to more daily psychological availability and lower daily stress in parent-child interactions, but parental need frustration related to less daily psychological availability and more stress. Psychological availability and stress were related to more daily parent-reported and child-perceived autonomy support and psychological control, respectively. However, parental need-based experiences were related to children?s reported parenting only indirectly (i.e., through psychological availability and stress). These associations were obtained at the within-day level but not in models predicting parenting the next day. Conclusion. Parental need-based experiences are a critical resource for parenting.

Students’ knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test is a crucial component of assessment quality. Grounded in self-determination theory, we investigated whether knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test related to students’ situational motivation and experienced anxiety during physical education (PE). We also examined whether these relations were: (a) mediated by need-based experiences; and (b) moderated by teachers’ motivating style. Participants were 659 students (55.54% boys, 44.46% girls, mean age 14.72 years, standard deviation = 0.94) out of 40 classes from 32 schools taught by 39 different PE teachers. Analyses through multilevel structural equation modeling showed that students with more knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test valued and enjoyed the lesson more (i.e. autonomous motivation), and felt less aloof (i.e. amotivation). Relations between knowledge about the criteria and students’ situational motivation were mediated by experienced need satisfaction. Specifically, students who had more knowledge about the criteria for an upcoming test felt more in charge of their learning process (i.e. autonomy satisfaction), felt more effective in reaching their goals (i.e. competence satisfaction) and felt more connected to the teacher (i.e. relatedness satisfaction). Although relations between knowledge about the criteria and students’ motivation were not moderated by teachers’ motivating style, teachers’ motivating style displayed independent relations with students’ motivation. Implications for assessment quality and students’ motivation in PE are discussed.

Past research has shown that, while psychological control increases the risk for adolescents’ antisocial behavior, maternal knowledge of adolescents’ activities decreases this risk. Yet, research is somewhat inconclusive about the role of psychologically controlling parenting in parental knowledge. Also, the role of both predictors in prosocial behavior remains largely unknown. In this 1-year, multi-informant, prospective study, we investigated these issues by recruiting a sample of Turkish early adolescents (N = 229, Mage = 11.89 years, SD = 0.32, 47.0% boys) and their mothers. After controlling for baseline adolescent-reported maternal knowledge, we found mother-reported psychological control to negatively predict adolescent-reported maternal knowledge 1 year later. In turn, maternal knowledge related negatively to antisocial behavior and positively to altruistic prosocial behavior (but not to instrumental prosocial behavior). These findings highlight the key role that maternal psychological control and knowledge can have in adolescents’ social functioning.