How autonomy‐supportive parenting fosters adolescent identity across the transition to higher education: The role of an authentic inner compass

Abstract During the transition from high school to higher education, late adolescents are faced with numerous decisions that can significantly impact their identity, such as choosing a major. This study investigated the role of late adolescents' sense of having an authentic inner compass (AIC)—the sense of knowing what is truly important to them by having personally endorsed values, preferences, and goals—in identity development. Moreover, we tested whether basic autonomy‐supportive parenting and more identity‐specific autonomy‐supportive practices can facilitate late adolescents' sense of having an AIC and subsequent identity development. A three‐wave longitudinal study involved 377 families with an adolescent from the 12th grade of Flemish secondary education during the transition to higher education (69.1% girls, M age = 16.87), along with their mothers ( M age = 45.75 years) and fathers ( M age = 47.95 years). In the 12th grade, adolescents' AIC was related to more identification with commitment and study choice commitment and less ruminative exploration. Furthermore, adolescents' AIC had beneficial effects on changes in these identity outcomes across time. Both parents' identity‐specific autonomy‐supportive practices of inherent value demonstration (IVD) and reflective authentic inner compass facilitation (RAICF) related positively to adolescents' AIC and subsequent identity outcomes, in addition to basic autonomy support. These effects were stronger when reported by adolescents (than when reported by parents) and at the level of stable between‐person differences (than at the level of within‐person change). The findings indicate that parents can promote the development of an AIC through identity‐specific autonomy‐supportive practices, thereby indirectly fostering identity development among late adolescents.