Parenting about challenges and adolescents' social anxiety, disrupted classroom concentration, and resilience knowledge: The mediating role of authentic self-esteem

• Published in: Families systems & health
• Main Authors: Boulton, Michael J, Macaulay, Peter J R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.09.2022
• ISSN: 1939-0602
• DOI: 10.1037/fsh0000701

A large theoretical and empirical literature indicates that parenting practices affect young people's well-being and resilience, but there is much still to learn about psychological mechanisms, especially beyond infancy/early childhood. A recent model of authentic self-esteem argues that it arises out of experiences of challenge situations shared with parents that it can subsequently act as a protective factor that supports well-being and resilience among young people. The aim of the current study is to test (a) if parenting about challenges can predict 3 indices of adolescents' well-being, namely their social anxiety, disrupted classroom concentration, and ability to spontaneously generate resilient strategies; and more substantially, (b) if authentic self-esteem can mediate those associations if found. Adolescents ( = 836) completed a questionnaire that measured all the study variables via self-report with the exception that unprompted open questions were used to gauge their ability to spontaneously generate resilient strategies. Parental discussions of challenges did significantly predict all 3 well-being indices, and authentic self-esteem was found to mediate all these relationships. These results support the view that parenting about challenges is a practice that supports well-being and resilience in adolescents. It appears to do so through promoting the development of authentic self-esteem, a capacity to evaluate the self in a positive manner in the context of challenges. The theoretical and practical significance of these findings are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).