Indian home environment from the perspective of self-determination theory

Pages: 778-783
Jeny Rapheal (Department of Psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore )
Varghese Paul K. (Department of Psychology, Prajyoti Niketan College, Pudukkad)

An attempt is made to view Home Environment of adolescents of India from the perspective of Self Determination theory (SDT) which is a need based theory. Psychological need satisfaction of adolescents in the backdrop of their Home Environment is a rarely attempted topic of investigation in Indian research scenario. The postulates and assumptions of SDT seem to be very much appropriate for Indian parenting contexts in this era of globalization and consequent cultural intermixing. It is high time that empirically supported facts of SDT is to be tried and tested in eastern cultures where collectivism is gradually losing its hold on interpersonal relationships and replaced by individualism and personal autonomy. Review of studies of past dealing with the environmental correlates of adolescent well-being asserts the ineluctable role of environment as the cardinal agency for adolescents’ basic psychological need satisfaction. In the analysis of data collected from the adolescents of 69 Indian families, significant association was observed between various dimensions of Home environment and the three basic psychological needs of SDT. Study concludes that “autonomy supportive” environment and “autonomy supportive” parenting should be introduced in research as well as practice in India.