Hr. Conte et al., GENDER DIFFERENCES IN RECALLED PARENTAL CHILD-REARING BEHAVIORS AND ADULT SELF-ESTEEM, Comprehensive psychiatry, 37(3), 1996, pp. 157-166
A retrospective questionnaire study investigated gender differences in
the relations between the self-reported self-esteem of 155 psychiatri
c adult outpatients and their recalled experience of their parents' be
havior toward them as children. There were no significant sex differen
ces in degree of self-esteem. However, it had a higher correlation to
parenting variables for the men than for the women, with maternal pred
ictor variables accounting for 36% and paternal predictors accounting
for 32% of the variance in the men's self-esteem. Neither combined mat
ernal nor combined paternal variables were significant predictors for
women. For men, parental acceptance/autonomy was significantly and pos
itively related and inconsistency negatively related to self-esteem. P
aternal rejection but not maternal rejection was significantly associa
ted with low self-esteem only for the women. The greater amount of var
iance explained by childrearing variables in the men's self-esteem sco
res was attributed to the earlier ego development and consequent incre
ased individuation in women. (C) 1996 by W.B. Saunders Company