The relationship of child temperament and maternal behavior to the child's self-esteem

• Main Author: Sorte, Joanne Godard
• Other Authors: Doescher, Susan M.
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Mother and child; Self-perception in children; Child psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/38062

High levels of self-esteem (the individual's assessment of self-worth) have been associated with a variety of positive child outcomes, while low levels of self-esteem have been related to problems in child growth and development. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between specific child temperament and parenting behaviors to the child's selfesteem. More specifically it determined the relationship between child quality of mood, child adaptability, maternal responsiveness, maternal reasoning guidance, child gender, and family socioeconomic status with the child's perceived competence and social acceptance. The interactive effects of child quality of mood x maternal responsiveness and child adaptability x maternal reasoning guidance were also explored. The sample for this study consisted of 45 preschool children and their mothers. The children were enrolled in the O.S.U. Child Development Center and the L.B.C.C. Family Resource Center. Mothers completed a questionnaire consisting of an adaptation of the Parent Temperament Questionnaire for Children (Thomas, Chess, & Korn, 1977), an adaptation of the Iowa Parent Behavior Inventory (Crase, Clark, & Pease, 1979), and descriptive information. Children were assessed for self-esteem using Harter and Pike's Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children (1984). The analyses consisted of the following: descriptive statistics of all variables, a correlation matrix using all variables, univariate and hierarchical regressions between the independent variables and perceived competence and social acceptance, and regression analyses to test for interactive effects of the selected independent variables against perceived competence and social acceptance. Results revealed these significant findings: maternal responsiveness positively correlated with social acceptance; child adaptability negatively correlated with social acceptance; positive interaction effects were demonstrated between child quality of mood x maternal responsiveness and child adaptability against social acceptance; negative interaction effects were revealed between child adaptability x maternal reasoning guidance against social acceptance; also, child adaptability x maternal reasoning guidance with maternal responsiveness significantly predicted greater social acceptance. No significant relationships were found with perceived competence. This study supported the expectation that specific child temperament characteristics interacted with particular parenting behaviors to affect the development of positive child self-esteem. === Graduation date: 1991