Parenting Influences Children’s Self-esteem Development

Child rearing and parenting style has been an interesting factor among many researchers of self-esteem development and which led to many researches that analyzed the interrelation between the two. Parenting styles can be categorized into four according to the parental demandingness and responsiveness; such as authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent and uninvolved. Authoritative parents are moderate in demandingness and responsiveness. They are firm but not rigid, monitor and impart clear standards for child’s conduct, give priority to child’s needs, encourage child’s autonomy, accept the individuality and offer a democratic climate. Authoritarian parents are high in demandingness and low in responsiveness. They are fi rm, strict, rigid, harsh, demand unquestioned obedience from the child, relatively neglect child’s needs and not ready to accept individuality of the child. Indulgent or permissive parents are low in demandingness and high in responsiveness. They are more friends than parents, and they are characterized by low enforcement of rules and authority, minimal punishment and frequent expression of warmth and affection. Uninvolved or neglectful parents have low demandingness and low responsiveness. They are inattentive, have little interaction with child and neglect child’s needs.

Recent researches in various cultures concluded that authoritative parenting style was positively correlated with healthy SE of the children than the other three parenting styles. A US study among 272 students and two Iranian studies with 400 and 150 students concluded the same. A Brazilian study among 1,239 adolescents and a Spanish study among 1456 teenagers proved that authoritative and indulgent parenting styles were correlated to higher self-esteem than other two parenting styles. A similar conclusion derived in a multicultural study among 793 Spanish, 675 Portuguese and 623 Brazilian students.

Studies among parents proved that authoritative parents’ mastery-orientation, such as a belief that he or she has personal control over the situation, external factors, chances, and other people mediated to their children. Mediation of parents’ mastery-orientation contributed positively to children’s self-esteem.

On the contrary, parents’ over-protection and their low level of acceptance created SE problems in adolescents. Parents’ own self-esteem infl uence on their parenting style. Moreover, adolescents’ perception about their parents’ parenting styles mattered most here.