Women’s Health Bulletin

Women’s Health Bulletin

Family Communication Patterns and Academic Identity in Adolescent Girls: The Mediating Role of Basic Psychological Needs

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
Reza Mohammadi
Fateme Nazari
Qamar Kiani
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Zanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zanjan, Iran
10.30476/whb.2026.110737.1399
Abstract
Background: Family interactions and psychological resources play critical roles in adolescent development. This study examined the relationship between family communication patterns (conversation and conformity orientations) and academic identity among female adolescents, focusing on the mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction.
Methods: In this cross-sectional correlational study, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted. The sample comprised 384 female secondary school students in Zanjan, Iran, selected by multistage cluster random sampling during the 2023–2024 academic year. Participants completed the Persian versions of the Academic Identity Questionnaire, the Revised Family Communication Patterns Instrument, and the Basic Psychological Needs Scale. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS version 4 and SPSS version 25. Also, bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples was used to evaluate direct and indirect effects.
Results: Conversation orientation had a significant positive direct effect on basic psychological need satisfaction (β=0.47, t=6.12, P<0.001) and positive academic identity (β=0.28, t=3.83, P<0.001), while negatively predicting negative academic identity (β= -0.25, t=4.05, P<0.001). Conversely, conformity orientation was negatively associated with basic psychological needs (β= -0.33, t=4.31, P<0.001) and positive academic identity (β= -0.22, t=5.17, P<0.001), and positively associated with negative academic identity (β=0.26, t=3.88, P<0.001). Basic psychological needs significantly mediated the relationships between both family communication orientations and academic identity dimensions (P<0.01).
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that basic psychological need satisfaction is associated with the pathway through which family communication patterns relate to academic identity among adolescent girls. Conversation-oriented family communication was linked to more adaptive academic identity by greater autonomy, competence, and relatedness, whereas conformity orientation was associated with impaired positive identity formation through lower need satisfaction.
Keywords
Adolescent
Family Relations
Basic Psychological Needs
Personal Autonomy
Students

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