Bart Soenens

Ghent University | UGhent · Department of Developmental, Personal, and Social Psychology

The essential role of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in well‐being has been demonstrated convincingly. Yet whether their fulfillment also serves as a source of resilience in the face of adversity has received limited attention. A longitudinal sample of Belgian citizens ( N = 1869; M age = 56.23, 68% female) comple...

Parental burnout emerges as a response to chronic and overwhelming parenting stress and is related to dysfunctional parenting practices, such as neglectful or violent behavior. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the current study aims to evaluate parenting stress as an antecedent and the more general quality of parenting as an outcome of parent...

Although negotiation is generally considered an adaptive means for adolescents to express disagreement in the parent-child relationship, previous research on the correlates of adolescents’ negotiation has reported rather mixed results. This may be because parents do not always positively appraise and respond to adolescents’ negotiation. The key aim...

Based on the perceptions of 331 youth athletes (Mage=14.33) and their most involved parent in sports (Mage = 45.96), this study examined whether different profiles of parental behavior (i.e., autonomy-, competence-, and relatedness-supportive and thwarting in the context of sports) could be identified, the extent to which these profiles align betwe...

Introduction: Late adolescents differ in the degree to which they are thoroughly engaged in the study choice process and in the degree to which their choices are autonomous in nature. This study examined the unique and interactive roles of (a) parental involvement in the study choice process and (b) late adolescents' sense of having an authentic i...

Despite broad interest in how children and youth cope with stress and how others can support their coping, this is the first Handbook to consolidate the many theories and large bodies of research that contribute to the study of the development of coping. The Handbook's goal is field building - it brings together theory and research from across the...

Parental burnout (PB) is a pervasive phenomenon. Parenting is embedded in cultural values, and previous research has shown the role of individualism in PB. In this paper, we reanalyze previously collected data to identify profiles based on the four dimensions of PB, and explore whether these profiles vary across countries’ levels of collectivistic-...

As cognitively gifted students may be at risk for motivational problems and underachievement, it is critical to find effective ways to motivate them. Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT) and the literature on teacher beliefs and mindsets, the present study examined whether teachers adapt their motivational teaching style as a function of the...

Some sports coaches not only invest considerable time and energy in their athletes, but also attach their self-worth to the successes and failures of their athletes. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the present study aimed to examine the theoretical predictors and outcomes of such Athlete-Invested Contingent Self-worth (AICS). Results from a...

Ample research has shown that a controlling teaching style is detrimental for students’ motivation and engagement in school. However, little is known about how students cope with such a teaching style. Therefore, grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the present study examines the role of four coping strategies (i.e. oppositional defiance, compuls...

Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism. Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and...

Late adults differ in the degree to which their mental health is impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, with interindividual differences in their capacity to mobilize coping resources playing an important role. Therefore, the search for inner sources of resilience is important to understand late adults’ adaptation to this crisis. Based on Goal Content Th...

The Multidimensional Overprotective Parenting Scale (MOPS) is a 35-item questionnaire assessing two dimensions of parental overprotection. Given its substantial length, the present research presents the development and psychometric properties of a short version of the MOPS (S-MOPS). Four independent samples were used (Sample 1, N = 315 Swiss adoles...

Overprotective parenting is associated with developmental difficulties in adolescents, with adolescents’ psychological need frustration playing a mediating role. However, these negative effects of overprotection might depend on how adolescents cope with such parenting. The current study used a person-centered approach to examine the moderating effe...

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, the editors recruited prominent scholars to debate thei...

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, the editors recruited prominent scholars to debate thei...

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, the editors recruited prominent scholars to debate thei...

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a broad theory of psychological growth and wellness that has revolutionized how we think about human motivation and the driving forces behind personality development. SDT focuses on people’s basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and how social environments that support these needs fos...

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a broad theory of psychological growth and wellness that has revolutionized how we think about human motivation and the driving forces behind personality development. SDT focuses on people’s basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness and how social environments that support these needs fos...

Whereas both the family and school environment have been suggested to affect school burnout risks, the role of conditionally regarding parenting or teaching, in which affection is granted conditional on student achievement, in the development of school burnout has not yet been examined. This longitudinal study investigated students’ academic contin...

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, the editors recruited prominent scholars to debate thei...

This study used a longitudinal person-oriented approach to examine whether two distinct developmental pathways of maladaptive motivation could be distinguished among high-ability students (intelligence quotient [IQ] ≥ 120, N = 403, M age = 12.2 years, 60.5% males), as proposed by the Pathways to Underachievement Model. Latent class growth analysis...

The COVID-19 pandemic elicited a lot of concerns among citizens, thereby potentially compromising their well-being. This study sought to examine the role of individuals' emotion regulation styles (i.e., emotional dysregulation, emotional suppression, and emotional integration) in handling these concerns and their experiences of well-being (i.e., sa...

To explain why there is substantial heterogeneity in the degree to which adolescents suffer from psychologically controlling parenting, it is important to take into account adolescents’ active contribution to the socialization processes and to their coping with controlling parenting in particular. This study aimed to examine whether adolescents’ co...

Even though each adolescent is unique, some ingredients for development may still be universal. According to Self-Determination Theory, every adolescent’s well-being should benefit when parents provide warmth and autonomy. To rigorously test this idea that each family has similar mechanisms, we followed 159 Dutch parent-adolescent dyads (parent: Ma...

Purpose The prevalence of parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children, varies dramatically across countries and is highest in Western countries characterized by high individualism. Method In this study, we examined the mediators of the relationship between individualism measured at the country level and...

Objective: Across nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccination, people in Belgium differed widely in their vaccination intention. In the present study, we examined (a) how people's vaccination intentions changed during the vaccination rollout and (b) whether changes in motivation (i.e., autonomous, controlled, and distrust-based (a)motivation) predi...

Parental overprotection has been defined as parents’ level of protection and involvement that is excessive considering the child’s developmental level (Holmbeck et al., 2002). One of the most comprehensive self-report measures of this multifaceted construct is the Multidimensional Overprotective Parenting Scale (MOPS; Kins & Soenens, 2013). The MOP...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03012-2.].

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all societies worldwide. The heightened levels of stress that accompanied the crisis were also expected to affect parenting in many families. Since it is known that high levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to a condition that has severe consequences for health and well-being, we examined whether the...

Scholars typically consider parental overprotection to be a maladaptive type of parenting with negative repercussions for adolescents' psychosocial adjustment, with frustration of adolescents' psychological needs serving as an underlying mechanism behind these effects. However, little is known about how adolescents cope with overprotective parentin...

Objective. Across nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccination, people in Belgium differed widely in their vaccination intention. In the present study, we examined (a) how people’s vaccination intentions changed during the vaccination rollout and (b) whether changes in motivation (i.e., autonomous, controlled, and distrust-based (a)motivation) predic...

Significance Communicating in ways that motivate engagement in social distancing remains a critical global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested motivational qualities of messages about social distancing (those that promoted choice and agency vs. those that were forceful and shaming) in 25,718 people in 89 countries...

Even though each adolescent is unique, some ingredients for development may still be universal. According to Self-Determination Theory, every adolescent’s well-being should benefit when parents provide warmth and autonomy. To rigorously test this idea that each family has similar mechanisms, we followed 159 Dutch parent-adolescent dyads (parent: Ma...

Although it has been hypothesized that gifted students are at risk for adopting a fixed mind-set, research revealed inconsistent results. We aimed to clarify this by differentiating between two operationalizations of giftedness (high cognitive ability and formal identification as gifted) and how these relate to students’ beliefs about intelligence...

This study examined the family emotional climate as assessed by Five Minute Speech Samples and the relation with parenting stress and parenting behaviors among parents of children (6–17 years, 64.7% boys) with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and without any known disability (n = 447). The large majority of parents (79%) sho...

Based on self-determination theory, this diary study examined associations between adolescents' daily need crafting and daily fluctuations in their need-based and affective experiences. We also examined the role of daily perceived autonomy-supportive parenting in adolescents' daily need-crafting. Adolescents (N = 159; M age = 15.56; 62% female) fil...

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a threat not only to individuals’ physical health but also to their mental health. Self-Determination Theory assumes that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence promotes psychological well-being during destabilizing times. Yet, the pandemic seriously hampered individua...

Background It is widely recommended for teachers to provide positive feedback to foster the development and maintenance of children’s motivation and perseverance. However, not all positive feedback has positive consequences and an important differentiation can be made between positive person-oriented feedback (i.e. ‘you are very talented’) and proc...

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people across the world, with important heterogeneity among older adults in how they respond to the challenges associated with this crisis. Relying on a cross-fertilization between Erikson’s personality theory and Self-Determination Theory, this study aimed to examine possible sources of resilience (i.e., ego inte...

SYNOPSIS Objective. Parental academic conditional regard is a socialization strategy in which parents’ displays of appreciation increase (conditional positive regard; PACPR) or decrease (conditional negative regard; PACNR) depending on the children’s academic achievement. Little is known about how adolescents perceive combinations of conditional po...

The objective of this study was to examine associations between daily fluctuations in work–family conflict (i.e. work-to-family interference [WFI] and family-to-work interference [FWI]) and daily fluctuations in toddler parenting (i.e. controlling parenting practices), thereby investigating day-to-day feelings of parental emotional exhaustion as an...

This study investigated emotion regulation (i.e., emotional integration, suppression and dysregulation) as a transdiagnostic process underlying adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Basic psychological need experiences were investigated as a possible underlying mechanism explaining this association. A heterogeneous sample of non-cl...

This two-year longitudinal study addressed the joint contribution of parent-rated parenting behaviors and child personality on psychosocial outcomes in 118 families of children with Cerebral Palsy (M age Time 1 = 10.9 years old, 64.4% boys). Latent change modeling revealed intra-individual changes in children’s psychosocial development as internali...

In Western countries, recent decades have witnessed a revolution toward gender equality. Inequalities have been greatly reduced in areas such as education or employment. Because inequalities lead to distress, this development has largely benefited women. One notable exception is the realm of parenting, which has remained rife with inequalities even...

Although the COVID-19 crisis is a worldwide threat to individuals’ physical health and psychological well-being, not all people are equally susceptible to increased ill-being. One potentially important factor in individuals’ vulnerability (versus resilience) to ill-being in the face of stress is emotion regulation. On the basis of Self-Determinatio...

Across the world, measures were taken to contain the spreading of the COVID-19 virus. Many of these measures caused a sudden rupture in people’s daily routines, thereby eliciting considerable uncertainty and potentially also hampering the satisfaction of individuals’ psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Drawing upon Maslow...

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated quarantine measures highly impacted parental psychological well-being. Parents of children with chronic diseases might be specifically vulnerable as they already face multiple challenges to provide adequate care for their child. The research questions of the current study were twofold: (a) to examine whether par...

Although the COVID-19 crisis is a worldwide threat to individuals’ physical health and psychological well-being, not all people are equally susceptible to increased ill-being. One potentially important factor in individuals’ vulnerability (versus resilience) to ill- being in the face of stress is emotion regulation. On the basis of Self-Determinati...

School engagement and disengagement are important predictors of school success that are grounded in the social context of the classroom. This study used multilevel analysis to examine the contributions of the descriptive norms of friends, popular students and classmates regarding engagement and disengagement to the development of Students’ own beha...

To limit the spreading of the SARS-CoV-2-virus, governments worldwide have introduced behavioral measures that require considerable effort from their citizens to adhere to. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the present research sought to examine in a study among Belgian citizens the cross-sectional (total N=45975, Mage=50.42), week-to-week (su...

This nine-year longitudinal study addresses the joint contribution of parent-rated negative controlling parenting and child personality on psychosocial outcomes in 141 families of children with autism spectrum disorder (83% boys, mean age Time 1 = 10.1). Latent change modeling revealed substantial variation in within-person change in parenting and...

Introduction Although associations between Blatt's personality dimensions of self-criticism and dependency and adolescents' depressive symptoms are well-established, only few studies have examined associations between these variables at the level of daily, within-person fluctuations. Moreover, our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this per...

The lockdown measures that were taken to contain the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 caused many parents to stay at home with their children. This unusual situation created both risks and opportunities for families. In the present study, we examined the role of parental identity as a resource for parental adaptation during this challenging period, t...

During the pregnancy period, future parents differ substantially in their psychological adjustment, with some parents being more at risk for stress and depression than others. Grounded in self‐determination theory, the present study aimed to investigate the role of motivation to have a child and the social support perceived by both partners in pred...

Because research has shown systematic associations between self-discrepancies and several psychological disorders, self-discrepancy is considered as a transdiagnostic factor in psychopathology. The current research contributes to the literature by testing both cross-sectionally and longitudinally the role of self-discrepancies in parental burnout,...

Although the COVID-19 crisis is a distressing situation entailing greater boredom and lower life satisfaction, there is considerably heterogeneity in people's reaction patterns. In a sample of 1455 participants (Mage = 50.70, 70% female), collected during the second lockdown in Belgium, we sought to examine an integrative process model, thereby dis...

Why do students prefer one subject (e.g., mathematics) over another (e.g., languages)? This study examined how both students' individual dispositions and environmental factors predicted school subject liking in a large sample of 3409 Flemish middle-school students. First, subject preferences were found to depend on stable individual dispositions (i...

Introduction The Pathways to Underachievement model (PUM; Snyder & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2013) is a person-oriented framework identifying two distinct patterns of self- and value beliefs that help explain underachievement among cognitively highly able students. This framework was developed to clear up inconclusive findings from variable-centered unde...

High levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children. It is not yet clear, however, whether parental burnout varies by culture, and if so, why it might do so. In this study, we examined the prevalence of parental burnout in 42 countries (17,409 parents; 71...

Cyberbullying victimization is associated with mental health problems and reported to occur more in nonheterosexual orientation youth (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ)) than among heterosexual youth. Parental support may protect against mental health problems after being victimized, but nonsupportive parental influences may also exace...

Introduction: Satisfaction of adolescents' basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness contributes to their well-being. Socialization figures (e.g., parents) can assist adolescents in getting these needs met. In addition, adolescents can engage in need crafting, thereby proactively managing their behavior towards improved n...

Because parents of children with cerebral palsy encounter many challenges, the quality of their parenting varies substantially across time. To understand how and why their parenting behaviors change across time, we examined the contributions of child behavior and parents’ psychological needs to explanations of yearly variation in responsive, autono...

High levels of stress in the parenting domain can lead to parental burnout, a condition that has severe consequences for both parents and children. It is not yet clear, however, whether parental burnout varies by culture, and if so, why it might do so. In this study, we examined the prevalence of parental burnout in 42 countries (17,409 parents; 71...