Cluster Types of Perceived Parenting Styles and Self-Esteem of Middle School Students

Researchers have reported that parental authority has linked to levels of child’s self-esteem. Most previous research has shown that authoritative parenting is more beneficial to adolescent self-esteem than authoritarian parenting (Furnham & Cheng, 2000). The effects of authoritarian parenting, however, have yielded contradictory results in Asian cultures. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate how perceived parenting styles would affect adolescent self-esteem in Korean culture. Mean difference was significant among clusters on total self esteem score [F (2,418) = 19.80, p < .001]. Post-hoc test (Scheffe) result showed that “Very not authoritative parents” group was significantly low on total self esteem score than other groups. Among the sub-factors of self-esteem, academic and general self-esteem [F (2,418) = 7.01, p < .01], friend-related self-esteem [F (2,418) = 13.93, p < .001], family-oriented self-esteem [F (2,418) = 75.09, p <.001], physical appearance self-esteem [F (2,418) = 3.63, p < .05], teacher-related self-esteem [F (2,418) = 8.27, p <.001] showed significant mean differences among groups. As a result of Post-hoc test (Scheffe), “Very not authoritative parents” group showed significantly low on academic and general self-esteem, friend-related self-esteem, and family-oriented self-esteem than other groups. “Authoritative and not authoritarian parents” group showed significantly high on friend-related self-esteem and family-oriented self-esteem than “Authoritarian and little authoritative parents” group. “Authoritative and not authoritarian parents” group showed significantly high on physical appearance self-esteem and teacher-related self-esteem than “Very not authoritative parents” group. Furthermore, most past research contains certain methodological limitations to categorize parenting styles. In this respect, we explored patterns of family parenting styles using cluster analysis. Cluster analysis was performed with parenting styles (authoritarian and authoritative) of mother and father in a family. Lastly, we examined differences among clusters on adolescent self-esteem.