Effects of Parental Authoritarianism and Authoritativeness on Self-Esteem

The effect of parental authority upon the self-esteem of 230 college students was studied. Authoritarianism and authoritativeness of the mother and the father were found to correlate significantly with self-esteem; authoritarianism was inversely related to self-esteem while authoritativeness was directly related to self-esteem. Permissiveness of the mother and the father were not significantly related to self-esteem. Regression analyses revealed that the proportion of variance in self-esteem that was associated with parental authoritarianism and authoritativeness was over twice as great for females as for males.