Parental autonomy support and honesty: The mediating role of identification with the honesty value and perceived costs and benefits of honesty Julien S. Bureau * , Geneviève A. Mageau Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Box 6128, Downtown Station, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7, Canada Keywords: Honesty Autonomy support Costs and benefits Identification Early adolescents Selfdetermination abstract Previous research emphasizes the importance of honesty (or the absence of lying) in adolescent-parent communication as it is ultimately linked to adolescent non-delinquency (Engels, Finkenauer, & van Kooten, 2006). Empirical evidence also suggests that positive parental practices may prevent adolescents’ lying (Darling, Cumsille, Caldwell, & Dowdy, 2006; Jensen, Arnett, Feldman, & Cauffman, 2004). This study tests an integrated model where perceived parental autonomy support and controlling parenting are expected to have opposite effects on adolescent’s honesty in the parent–adolescent relationship via differential identification to the honesty value and perceived costs/benefits of being honest. Using structural equation modeling, results from 167 parent-adolescent dyads showed that autonomy support was associated with adolescents’ identification to the honesty value and perceived low costs/high benefits of honesty. Opposite relations were observed with controlling parenting. Higher honesty value identification and low costs/ high benefits of honesty in turn predicted adolescents’ honesty. The importance of autonomy-supportive parenting in creating honest family settings is discussed. Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Adolescence entails various interpersonal transitions (Stattin & Magnusson, 1989) as adolescents develop new interests, meet new friends, and spend more time away from the family (Larson, Richards, Moneta, Holmbeck, & Duckett, 1996). These changes may affect parent–adolescent communication (Cumsille, Darling, & Martínez, 2010) by giving adolescents more occasions and potential reasons to hide information from their parents and even to lie to them (Smetana, 2008). Previous research shows that adolescents’ lying to parents is associated with adolescents’ maladaptive behavior (tolerance of deviance and reduced self-restraint; Jensen et al., 2004). Adolescent lying is also associated with less parental knowledge of adoles- cents’ activities (Darling et al., 2006; Marshall, Tilton-Weaver, & Bosdet, 2005; Smetana, 2008), which is an important pro- tective factor from adolescents’ delinquency (Stattin & Kerr, 2000). In light of the importance of adolescents’ honesty (or absence of lies), the present research draws on Self-determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000) to address what parents can do to encourage honesty from their early adolescents. Adolescents’ honesty Adolescents’ honesty within parent-adolescent communication refers to adolescents’ behaviors of telling the truth and refraining from lying to their parents. While telling the truth is defined as stating an information that corresponds to reality, * Corresponding author. E-mail address: juliensbureau@gmail.com (J.S. Bureau). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Adolescence journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jado 0140-1971/$ – see front matter Ó 2014 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.12.007 Journal of Adolescence 37 (2014) 225–236