In
T HE HONEST Y OF
Continued from page 9
et al. (2006), Cumsille et al. (2010) and more
recently, Bureau & Mageau (2014). First, we
need to know that even young people who
“buy into” the value of honesty may still decide to lie if they risk losing too much via
consequences (Bureau & Mageau, 2014).
Internalizing the value of honesty at
school—making it more of a character
trait—depends on a number of factors, but
perhaps especially on 1) the work teachers
do to develop “unconditional positive regard” toward students, even students who
struggle with coursework or behavior, and
2) autonomy supportive (versus controlling) teaching practices. A well-demonstrated
research finding is that the more adults
are autonomy supportive, the more their
adolescents tell the truth; similarly, the
more teachers are autonomy supportive,
the more student motivation for academic
work is internalized.
How does this happen? Bureau and
Mageau (2014) note that when adults
support the development of autonomy in
young people, the kids “perceive less costs
and more benefits in being honest and
[thus start to] identify with the honesty value to a greater extent” (p. 235). Kids whose
teachers foster their autonomy just lie less,
in part because of the trust that it built.
Wendy Grolnik and her colleagues (1997)
have documented how adolescents with
autonomy supportive parents start to iden-
Page 10 Winter 2014
tify with their parents’ values more than when
their parents are controlling. For the same
reasons, it would be plausible to believe that
students are more willing to identify with the
values of their teachers when the teachers are
autonomy supportive. l
Works Cited:
Baumrind, D. (2008) Authoritative Parenting for Character
and Competence, in D. Streight (ed) Parenting for Character:
Five Experts, Five Practices. CSEE.
Bureau, J. & Mageau, G. (2014) Parental Autonomy Support and Honesty: The Mediating Role of Identification
with the Honesty Value and Perceived Costs and Benefits
of Honesty. Journal of Adolescence, 37, 225-236.
Cumsille, P., Darling, N., & Martinez, M. L. (2010). Shading
the Truth: the Patterning of Adolescents’ Decisions to
Avoid Issues, Disclose, or Lie to Parents. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 285-296.
Darling, N., Cumsille, P., Caldwell, L., & Dowdy, B. (2006).
Predictors of Adolescents’ Disclosure to Parents and Perceived Parental Knowledge: Bet