Structural Relationships between Assertiveness and Parenting Styles with Mediating Self-Esteem and Anxiety of Singleton Children

Objectives: This study aimed to develop an explanatory model of assertiveness based on parenting styles mediated by anxiety and self-esteem. Methods: This study is descriptive-correlational modeling with partial least squares. The statistical population included singleton children of the sixth grade of the elementary school in the 3rd District of Tehran in the academic year 2017-18. The sampling method was multi-stage sampling; eight schools (four all-boys and four all-girls) were randomly selected from all primary schools in the 3rd District of Tehran, then, a sixth-grade class was randomly selected in each school. The singleton students of those classes participated in the present study as the study sample. The sample size was 118 students (81 girls and 37 boys). The instruments of this research included the Persian forms of Adaptive and Aggressive Assertiveness Scales (Thompson & Berenbaum, 2011), the Baumrind Parenting Scale (Baumrind, 1971), Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck et al. 1988), and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). To analyze the data, the SPSS 26 software was used. Results: The results indicated that authoritative and permissive parenting styles had a significant effect on assertiveness among the parenting styles. The total effects indicated that authoritative and permissive parenting styles explained 0.22 and 0.20 of the variances of assertiveness. The results also showed that the authoritarian parenting style had no significant effect on assertiveness. Discussion: The suggested model was acceptably fit, according to the results of the study. Permissive and authoritative parenting styles had impact on assertiveness.