Although teachers’ autonomy support and structure are considered essential elements of the classroom environment to promote effective learning strategies, prior research has sometimes provided conflicting results. This inconsistency may stem from how autonomy support and structure relate to some outcomes but not others. Alternatively, this variability might be attributed to nonlinear relations, which have been scarcely tested thus far. In this cross-sectional study, we revisited this issue by examining both the linear and curvilinear relations of autonomy support and structure to challenge-seeking, novelty avoidance, and procrastination. Participants were 3,271 adolescents (Mage = 15.91, SD = 0.34 years; 59.8% females) from 116 classrooms. Multilevel polynomial regression analyses revealed that, compared to structure, autonomy support was a more reliable predictor of challenge-seeking, both at the student and the classroom levels. In contrast, structure predicted novelty avoidance and procrastination more reliably at both levels than autonomy support. Response surface analyses indicated that the most desired pattern existed at the line of congruence. Our findings suggest that both autonomy support and structure are needed to enhance students’ learning strategies. However, the degree of necessity may vary for specific outcomes, with one potentially being more crucial than the other. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

What makes people to take important decisions in their lives, such as marriage? To answer this question, we relied on theory of planned behavior to examine the degree to which peoples' attitudes, subjective-norms, and behavioral control perceptions predict their intentions to marry. Furthermore, we used self-regulatory focus theory to examine whether such attitudes, norms, and perceptions could be partly explained by peoples' focus on pursuing-gains versus securing non-losses. We conducted a cross-sectional, web-based survey with a sample of 699 Turkish young adults (70.7% females; Mage =24.89 years, SD = 4.31). The results of the structural equation modeling showed that promotion-focus positively and prevention-focus negatively related to perceived behavioral control, which in turn negatively related to intentions to marry. Intentions also related positively to attitudes but not to subjective-norms, which however related positively to promotion-focus and negatively to prevention-focus. Gender and age differences were also found. The results are discussed in light of the two theories. © 2024 The Authors. Turkish Journal of Counseling Psychology and Guidance is published by Turkish Psychological Counselling and Guidance Association.

Although parental psychological control has been found to be detrimental to children’s psychological functioning, less is known about the role of internal and external maternal and paternal psychological control in preschoolers’ socio-emotional development. In this cross-sectional, multi-informant study, we rely on the self-determination theory to examine the relations between internal (i.e., guilt induction) and external (i.e., constraining verbal expressions and erratic emotional behavior) mother-reported and father-reported psychological control and preschoolers’ (N = 136; 51.5% males; Mage = 5.53, SD = 0.66 years) externalizing symptoms, internalizing symptoms, and social competence, as reported by their teachers. Regression analyses revealed unique relations between internal and external psychological control and preschoolers’ social-emotional adjustment. While external psychological control related negatively to preschoolers’ social competence and positively to anger-aggression, internal psychological control emerged as the unique predictor of anxiety-withdrawal. Importantly, the results indicated that these findings were consistent for both mothers and fathers. Our findings suggest that parental internal and external psychological control differentially relate to children’s socio-emotional adjustment in early childhood. © The Author(s) 2024.

Within the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), basic psychological need satisfaction predicts quality of motivation which in turn predicts study efforts. Although studies focusing on interpersonal differences have repeatedly shown this sequence of relations, only a few have examined its stability at the intra-personal level. In this diary study, we recruited 141 university students (Mage = 20.80, SD = 2.20 years) to investigate the degree of confluence among week-to-week need satisfaction, quality of motivation, learning strategies, and procrastination for four weeks. Multilevel structural equation modelling showed that need satisfaction covaried positively with autonomous motivation. In turn, week-to-week autonomous motivation predicted positively week-to-week critical thinking and effort regulation and negatively procrastination. These relations emerged even after controlling for gender, age, and study hours per week. Further, contextual autonomous motivation predicted higher mean levels of critical thinking and effort regulation and lower ones of procrastination. Interestingly, a cross-level interaction supported the sensitivity hypothesis as the negative relation between need satisfaction and controlled motivation was only true among students who were high in contextual (pre-diary assessed) controlled motivation. These findings highlight the importance of contextual motivation and the need to establish academic environments that consistently satisfy students' psychological needs, thus promoting the quality of motivation and adaptive learning strategies. © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Purpose: To examine nocturnal sleep patterns, napping behaviors, and subjective wellness responses of elite water polo players within an in-season week and to identify whether sleeping patterns differ between men and women. Methods: Sleep characteristics of 10 male and 17 female professional water polo players were objectively assessed during 1 week of the in-season period, including 5 training days, 1 match day, and 1 day of rest. Internal load (rating of perceived exertion × duration of training or match) was assessed 30 minutes posttraining or postmatch, and the total quality of recovery was recorded every morning. A series of multilevel models were used to analyze the data. Results: Time in bed and wake-up time were earlier on both training (P < .001) and rest days (P < .001) than on the day of the match. Internal workload did not predict any of the players' sleeping patterns. Midday naps predicted less time in bed (P = .03) and likely less sleep time (P = .08). The total quality of recovery was predicted only by the total sleep time (P < .01).Women exhibited higher sleep efficiency (P < .001), less waking after sleep onset (P = .01), and a lower number of awakenings (P = .02) than men. Conclusions: The current results indicate that the nocturnal sleep patterns of elite water polo players are not associatedwith internal load and thatwomen display better nocturnal sleep quality compared with men. As long naps interfere with nocturnal sleep, and total nocturnal sleep time predicts total quality of recovery, we suggest that athletes follow hygiene sleep strategies to facilitate adequate nocturnal sleep and next-day recovery. © 2024 Human Kinetics Publishers Inc.. All rights reserved.