Parenting and adolescent adjustment: The mediational role of family self-esteem

Abstract

The present study analyzes the relationship between parental socialization practices, acceptance/involvement, and strictness/imposition, and different indicators of adolescent adjustment, taking into account the role of family self-esteem. A sample of 848 Spanish adolescents (54.70% females) ranging in age from 14 to 18 years old (M = 16.11, SD = 1.10) participated in the study. A series of structural equations models (SEMs) were tested to examine the mediational role of family self-esteem in the relationship between parenting practices and the outcome variables that capture adolescent adjustment: emotional instability, antisocial behavior, and academic achievement. The influence of parental practices on adolescent adjustment is expected to take place through family self-esteem. The results showed that the effect of acceptance/involvement and strictness/imposition practices on emotional instability, antisocial behavior, and academic achievement was mediated by family self-esteem. Family self-esteem eliminates the previous direct relationships between parental practices and all the adolescent adjustment variables, except the one between acceptance/involvement and emotional instability, which was reduced but not eliminated. Acceptance/involvement practices positively influence adolescents’ adjustment via family self-esteem, whereas strictness/imposition practices negatively influence adolescents’ adjustment via family self-esteem. This study contributes to clarifying the relationship between parental practices and adolescent adjustment, considering family self-esteem as a mediational variable rather than as an adolescent adjustment indicator. The present findings and their implications for parenting science are discussed.