Grandmother and Parent Influences on Child Self-esteem

Abstract

This study tests a model of intergenerational influences on childhood self-esteem that proposes paths from grandmothers' drug problems to grandchildren's self-esteem via parents' drug problems and parental adaptive child rearing and from grandmothers' maternal acceptance to grandchildren's self-esteem via parents' unconventionality and adaptive child rearing. This longitudinal study uses data obtained from interviews with a New York City sample of black and Puerto Rican children (N = 149) and 1 of their parents and from mailed questionnaires or comparable interviews with those parents' mothers. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model. The LISREL analysis found that, with 3 exceptions, all of the hypothesized paths were significant. The total effects analysis indicated that parents' adaptive child rearing was the strongest latent construct, a finding that was consistent with this construct's proximal position in the model. This study suggests that mothers' drug problems are not just near-term risks for their children, but also pose long-term risks for their children's future functioning as parents and thereby for their grandchildren. The relative strength of parents' adaptive child rearing in this intergenerational model indicates that this area should be the focus of therapeutic intervention efforts, but addressing future grandmothers' drug problems may have positive effects on multiple generations.