Child self-esteem and different parenting styles of mothers: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aims: Several factors affect the formation of self-esteem in children, but given the importance of parentalattitudes and educational practices in the development of a sense of self-worth in children, the present study was designed to investigate the relationship between parenting styles and self-esteem in children. Materials and Methods: Thepopulation of this cross-sectional, descriptive study included primary school children of Zahedan cityduring 2013-2014. The data collection tools used were Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory and Diana Baumrind Parenting Style Inventory. Indicators such as the mean, standard deviation and frequency were used to describe data, and a multivariate regression test, Pearson correlation coefficient and SPSS software version 16 were applied in data analysis. Results: The total self-esteem score of the children participating in this study was 5.6 ± 32.5 and most mothers had an authoritative parenting style(80.6%). There was significant relationship between self-esteem and authoritative parenting style (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: The resultsindicated that authoritative parenting style was a significant predictor of children's self-esteem, which suggests that children of parents with authoritative parenting style have significantly higher self-esteem.