Perceived Maternal Parenting Style And Self-Esteem Among Eldest Child

Abstract

Our current research explored how young adult firstborn sons and daughters perceive their mothers' parenting approaches, specifically permissive, authoritative, and authoritarian styles, and how these perceptions relate to their self-esteem. Utilizing a quantitative, correlational design with a sample of 37 eldest males and 37 eldest females, the research examined six hypotheses predicting noteworthy links merged between permissive, authoritative, and authoritarian maternal parenting styles and self-esteem for both genders. Findings revealed weak positive correlations between perceived authoritative and permissive  maternal parenting and self-esteem and weak negative correlations between perceived authoritarian maternal parenting and self-esteem . However, none of these correlations reached statistical significance, leading to the rejection of all hypotheses. The study acknowledges its shortcomings, such as an inadequate sample size and self-reporting methodology; an online questionnaire potentially susceptible to social desirability and memory biases; participant attrition; and a cross-sectional design that precludes causal inferences. These limitations suggest a call for vigilance when extrapolating the results and emphasize the need for bigger, more varied sample sizes and longitudinal research approaches in future studies to better examine the intricate relationship amongst eldest children's self-esteem and perceived maternal parenting styles.