Parental Warmth and Involvement and the Self-Esteem of Young People in Hong Kong

Abstract

Self-esteem has been found to correlate with young people’s mental health and overall success. The present study explored the relationship between children’s perceived maternal and paternal warmth and involvement and their self-esteem. The data were drawn from 3100 primary and secondary students from 12 schools in Hong Kong. The results showed that maternal warmth had the strongest relation with self-esteem in both male and female children. Further analyses revealed that maternal warmth and involvement and paternal warmth in parent–child relationships could be used to predict female children’s self-esteem. For male students, it was found that maternal warmth and paternal warmth could be used to predict self-esteem. The implications of these results are discussed herein with respect to Hong Kong’s local context with reference to the policies for families. Specific implications regarding the link to children’s self-esteem with various factors of father–son, father–daughter, mother–son and mother–daughter relationships are also discussed. Finally, recommendations and conclusions are drawn in light of the findings.