PARENTING STYLES AND SELF-ESTEEM OF CHILDREN

Abstract

 The present study aims to explore the different types of parenting styles that parents use for raising their children. It also attempt to examined the relations between parenting styles and child’s self-esteem and analyze the role of parents in building positive self-esteem of children. The study includes a sample of 150 children of age 11 to 13 years (both boys and girls), who were randomly selected from different schools of Peshawar District. A self-constructed questionnaire was developed to assess the pattern of parenting styles used by the parents of the respondents and a standardized scale developed by Anwar (1997) is used to know to the level of self-esteem of respondents. Results of the present study revealed that along with many aspects of personality parenting do influence the self-esteem of children and there is a close relationship between parenting style and child’s self-esteem. The current study found that authoritative parenting was associated with more desirable child behavior and better self-esteem as compared to the other two parenting styles. The present research also indicated an association between authoritarian parenting and decreased self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and low level of happiness.