Autonomy Support and Alcohol Consumption Among Young Adolescents: the Mediating Role of Self-esteem
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Introduction: Research has shown that parenting styles that support autonomy are linked to numerous positive developmental outcomes, including higher self-esteem and fewer health-risk behaviors.Autonomy support from both mothers and fathers plays a critical role in their children's development; however, previous findings on this subject, irrespective of parent-child gender dyads, have been inconsistent.Aim: This study aims to explore the association between autonomy support from fathers and mothers, as perceived by young adolescents, self-esteem, and lifetime alcohol consumption among boys and girls.Methods: The research sample consisted of 1,125 young adolescents (mean age = 12.99 years, SD = 0.77), with 50.1% being girls.Mediation analysis was conducted separately for boys and girls using PROCESS (Model 4) in SPSS version 25.0.The independent variables were autonomy support from mothers and fathers, the dependent variable was lifetime alcohol consumption, and the mediator was self-esteem.Alcohol availability and descriptive normative beliefs about alcohol consumption were included as covariates.Results: Boys reported significantly higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of autonomy support from their fathers.Girls who reported no lifetime alcohol consumption demonstrated higher levels of self-esteem and received more autonomy support from both mothers and fathers.The mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect effect of autonomy support from mothers on reported alcohol consumption through self-esteem, but only among girls.Similarly, there was a significant indirect effect of autonomy support from fathers on reported alcohol consumption through self-esteem, but only among boys.This indicates that higher levels of maternal autonomy support, as perceived by girls, and higher levels of autonomy support from fathers, as perceived by boys, were each associated with an increase in self-esteem, which subsequently reduced the likelihood of reporting alcohol consumption-among girls in the first case, and among boys in the second.Conclusion: young adolescents' perceptions of autonomy support from both mothers and fathers were indirectly associated with alcohol consumption through self-esteem, with this effect varying by gender.These findings emphasize the importance of family-based programs that address young adolescent alcohol use, considering both the parent's and the child's gender.
Language: English
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Award: G8088548421
OpenAlex ID: W4410354942