Mu Ye, Motevalli Saeid
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Iran J Psychiatry. 2025 Apr;20(2):200-208. doi: 10.18502/ijps.v20i2.18202.
The growing acknowledgment of self-esteem as an essential element of psychological well-being has highlighted the influence of parenting styles on the self-esteem of children as a significant concern in developmental psychology. This study enhances prior research on the association between self-esteem and parenting styles by investigating the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility. This research is a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational study carried out in 2024 involving children between the ages of 6 and 12 in Beijing, China. Parents who volunteered participated by filling out self-report surveys, such as the short version of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI). These surveys were distributed via a Sojump link shared on social media. For the statistical analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, and path analysis were employed. A total of 150 children took part in this survey. The correlation analysis revealed that there were positive associations between the authoritative parenting style and the cognitive flexibility scale among children (r = 0.325, P < 0.01) and cognitive flexibility and self-esteem (r = 0.448, P < 0.01). There was also a significant negative correlation between authoritative parenting and authoritarian parenting (r = -0.402, P < 0.01). Moreover, results support the mediational hypothesis. However, the authoritative parenting style is no longer a significant contributor to self-esteem among children after controlling for cognitive flexibility as the mediator, β = 0.11, SE = 0.10, t = 1.06, P = 0.2897, 95% CI [-0.0941, 0.3131], suggesting a full mediation. This result indicated that the indirect coefficient was significant β = 0.1919, SE = 0.0595, 95% CI [0.0846, 0.3160]. The results of this study present an intriguing profile suggesting that certain psychological factors, such as authoritative parenting and cognitive flexibility, may enhance children's to self-esteem development. This research offers valuable insights for parents, educators, policymakers, and future researchers regarding the significance of authoritative parenting and cognitive flexibility in shaping children's self-esteem.
自尊作为心理健康的一个基本要素，越来越受到人们的认可，这凸显了养育方式对儿童自尊的影响，成为发展心理学中的一个重要关注点。本研究通过调查认知灵活性的中介作用，加强了先前关于自尊与养育方式之间关联的研究。这项研究是一项定量的横断面相关研究，于2024年在中国北京对6至12岁的儿童进行。自愿参与的家长通过填写自我报告调查问卷来参与，如养育方式与维度问卷简版（PSDQ）、罗森伯格自尊量表（RSES）和认知灵活性量表（CFI）。这些问卷通过社交媒体上分享的问卷星链接进行分发。在统计分析中，采用了描述性统计、皮尔逊相关分析和路径分析。共有150名儿童参与了这项调查。相关分析表明，权威型养育方式与儿童认知灵活性量表之间存在正相关（r = 0.325，P < 0.01），认知灵活性与自尊之间也存在正相关（r = 0.448，P < 0.01）。权威型养育与专制型养育之间也存在显著负相关（r = -0.402，P < 0.01）。此外，研究结果支持中介假设。然而，在将认知灵活性作为中介变量进行控制后，权威型养育方式对儿童自尊的贡献不再显著，β = 0.11，SE = 0.10，t = 1.06，P = 0.2897, 95% CI [-0.0941, 0.3131]，表明存在完全中介效应。这一结果表明间接系数显著，β = 0.1919，SE = 0.0595，95% CI [0.0846, 0.3160]。本研究结果呈现出一种有趣的情况，表明某些心理因素，如权威型养育方式和认知灵活性，可能会促进儿童自尊的发展。这项研究为家长、教育工作者、政策制定者以及未来的研究人员提供了关于权威型养育方式和认知灵活性在塑造儿童自尊方面的重要性的宝贵见解。
