How fathers influence their adolescents’ self-esteem: A longitudinal assessment
Date
2012
Authors
Hull, James W., Jr.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This study used data from the first two collection intervals of the National
Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate whether various
dimensions of fathering were able to predict adolescent self-esteem a year later.
Fathering was separated into five distinct dimensions or categories: availability,
engagement, verbal involvement, school involvement, and relationship quality. This
study also looked at whether baseline levels of the five fathering variables could
predict their corresponding levels a year later. Finally, this study examined whether an
adolescent’s self-esteem level at baseline is able to predict self-esteem level a year
later. The results demonstrated that baseline levels of all five fathering variables and
adolescent baseline self-esteem level predicts self-esteem level a year later.
Furthermore, four of the five fathering variables (all but verbal involvement) provided
a statistically significant prediction of adolescent self-esteem a year later. Of the four
statistically-significant fathering variables, relationship quality provided the strongest
relationship. This finding suggests that while behavioral measures of involvement
such as engagement and availability do provide significant, albeit small contributions
to adolescent self-esteem, an adolescent’s unique perception of their fathers’
involvement (relationship quality) may be a stronger predictor of their self-esteem.