Associations between parents’ and teachers’ autonomy support and the bifactor model of academic motivation: a short-term cross-lagged analysis

This study investigated the bidirectional associations between teacher and parent autonomy support and adolescents’ academic motivation in mathematics. A total of 2317 secondary students (49.10% female; M_age = 14.07 years) completed the same survey twice within a year. Using bifactor exploratory structural equation modelling to specify the global and specific motivational types in self-determination theory, a cross-lagged analysis revealed that (a) T1 teacher autonomy support did not significantly predict any T2 student motivation types, though the effect sizes of the cross-lagged paths were small-to-medium in magnitude, (b) T1 parent autonomy support significantly predicted T2 external regulation, (c) T2 teacher autonomy support was significantly predicted by T1 parent autonomy support and identified regulation, and (d) T2 parent autonomy support was significantly predicted by T1 global self-determined motivation. These results emphasise the role of autonomy support in shaping students’ motivation and highlight the interdependencies of students, parents, and teachers in the process.