ABSTRACT
This paper presents an exploratory study to identify the parental achievement goals of families in Spain and to detect peculiarities, in terms of their socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics. A total of 1590 families, represented by one of the two parents, participated by means of convenience sampling. The data were collected through a questionnaire developed ad hoc, validated by using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Data processing included descriptive analyses and comparisons between groups, looking for possible significant differences. The results indicate that the task mastery-oriented goal prevails in this research sample, but also that more than half of the participants guide their children towards task success. Therefore, a broad group of subjects simultaneously conveys two different types of goals with divergent orientations, a fact that could lead to a conflict of values for adolescents. Regarding the relationship with the socio-demographic and socio-economic variables of the families, their greatest influence is in the case of the goal oriented towards failure, being lower in the goal aimed at success and decreasing significantly in the goal oriented towards mastery of the task. The results of this study suggest the necessity to offer, within the framework of universal parenting programmes, specific projects which help parents to clarify the values inherent in their parental achievement goals from the perspective of positive parenting. In addition, teachers should be trained in this aspect so that, in exercising their tutorial role, they can encourage all families to attain the goals of parental achievement associated with the quality of education.
ABSTRACT
Resumen La familia juega un papel fundamental tanto en la socialización como en la configuración de valores en menores y adolescentes. Esta investigación estudia las percepciones del estudiantado adolescente sobre prácticas parentales y valores familiares e identifica las conductas prosostenibilidad de dicho estudiantado en una triple perspectiva: reducir, reutilizar y reciclar (3R). La población diana es el estudiantado de bachillerato de la ciudad de Cuenca (Ecuador). El análisis de datos incluye: comparación de medias, coeficiente de correlación r de Pearson y regresión lineal simple. Los resultados señalan que las mujeres y los varones adolescentes del estudio perciben un elevado apoyo parental a su autonomía y que las madres conceden mayor importancia al valor de ayuda a los demás. Adicionalmente, un alto porcentaje de los sujetos realizan al menos una acción de las 3R. Se concluye que la muestra percibe a la familia como un agente impulsor de su desarrollo como sujetos autónomos, un factor prometedor para la integración de valores y el desarrollo de competencias para la sostenibilidad; sin embargo, reconoce que la escuela es donde se fragua su compromiso con un futuro sostenible con más intensidad.
Abstract The family plays a fundamental role both in socialization and in the configuration of values in minors and adolescents; including those related to environmental care. In keeping with this premise, Unicef (2018) announced that the sustainable development of the planet requires counting on families; it pointed them out as essential collaborators of governments for the quality of life of future generations. Considered a natural and elemental unit of all modern societies and an educational agent of the first order for the development and psychosocial adjustment of its members, the family is also a primary socialization agent (Fontana-Abad, Gil y Reyero, 2013). It plays a key role in the internalization of prosocial values, such as self-transcendence (care and universalism) and conservation (conformity, safety, and tradition); values closely related to pro-environmental behaviors (Barrera-Hernández, Sotelo, Echeverría y Tapia, 2020). Following this line, this research studies the perceptions that adolescents have about family values, parental support for autonomy, and environmental care practices, according to the 3R rule, in a triple perspective: reduce, reuse, and recycle. It uses a quantitative, descriptive, and relational methodology. The target population was high school adolescents from the city of Cuenca (Ecuador). The sample was made up of 122 adolescents which attended three schools: one private educational unit (36.1 %) and two public (27.9 % and 36.1 %). Of the respondents, 38.8 % were female and 61.2 % were male, and they all were between 15 and 19 years old (M = 16.4; SD = 1.2); 27 % were in their first year of high school (15-17 years), 44.3 % were in their second year of high school (16-18 years) and the 28.7 % were in their third year (17-19 years). Data analysis includes comparison of means, Pearson's r correlation coefficient and simple linear regression. The results indicate that a high percentage of the adolescents in the study carry out at least one of the following environmental care actions (these are organized from highest to lowest frequency): saving water and electricity consumption, using garbage cans, reusing bottles, separating garbage, and participating in actions in favor of environment. Likewise, it is detected that they perceive family as a driving agent for their development as autonomous subjects, and a promising factor for the process of integration of values and the development of competencies for caring for the environment; however, they still recognize the school as the place where their commitment to a sustainable future is most intensely forged. Additionally, the adolescents in the study perceive a high parental support for their autonomy and, likewise, that mothers attach greater importance to the value of helping others, a central axis in the ethics of care that characterizes the paradigm of sustainability. This research corroborated, once again, the ONU's (2015) position when it indicates that the family is a main agent of change for sustainability, with a decisive influence on the preservation of life and ecosystems. It endorses the relevance of promoting educational strategies that promote family-school relations in order to enhance the role of the former in the acquisition of pro-environmental values and, ultimately, its collaboration in the quality of formal education aimed at sustainability. With these results, a path is opened to improve the knowledge on the parental role in relation to the promotion of behaviors of environmental care (pro-sustainability), within the framework of adolescents' and young people's formal education.
