Global self-esteem, defined as the “positive or negative attitude toward a particular object, namely, the self” (Rosenberg
1965, p. 30), has been found to become somewhat more positive during adolescence before stabilizing in young adulthood (Huang
2010; Trzesniewski et al.
2003). The individual trajectories of global self-esteem may be predicted by adolescents’ feelings of closeness to and acceptance from significant others, such as parents and peers (Leary et al.
1998). Even though adolescents often spend less time with their parents than they did when they were children, close and supportive relationships with their parents are still important sources of positive self-esteem (Mattanah et al.
2011). However, some adolescents do not have close relationships with their parents during adolescence and young adulthood. In these cases, being accepted by peers may be especially beneficial in the development of global self-esteem. This study investigates whether peer acceptance actually can protect against the negative effects of experiencing low closeness to parents on global self-esteem during adolescence and young adulthood (13–23 years).
Closeness to Parents and Global Self-esteem
Attachment theory (Bowlby
1969) emphasized the strong emotional bond between parents and children and proposed that the relationship between a child and her/his significant others provides the basis for the child’s working model of herself/himself. A child who experiences parents who are emotionally available, loving and supportive of the child’s attempts to master the world may construct a working model of herself/himself as valuable and competent. Having close relationships with parents also has been found to be associated with positive global self-esteem in adolescence (Laursen and Collins
2009; Mattanah et al.
2011).
The emotional context of parenting has been found to be crucial for positive development among children and adolescents (Steinberg
2001). During adolescence, this emotional bond may be manifested in mutual respect and understanding, shared activities, and self-disclosure. However, disagreements between parents and adolescents are common, as adolescents may experience less companionship and intimacy with parents (Buhrmester and Furman
1987), and the level of negative affect in parent–child conflict may be higher during adolescence than during other age periods (Laursen and Collins
2009). Furthermore, poorly managed conflicts have been found to be associated with more negative global self-esteem (Caughlin and Malis
2004). Most parents are able to adjust to the adolescents’ changing needs, and the conflicts between parents and adolescents do typically not represent a threat to relationships, but some families with a history of interpersonal problems may lack the adaptive patterns needed for developing new forms of closeness (Laursen and Collins
2009). In these cases, positive relationships with others, such as peers, may reduce the negative impact that low-quality relationships with parents may have on the adolescents’ global self-esteem (Steinberg
2001).
Peer Acceptance as a Protective Factor
During adolescence, peer relationships become more salient. Adolescents spend increasingly more time with peers, often without supervision from adults, and expectations of opinions of peers come to have a more important value to them (Brown and Larson
2009). Being accepted in friendship groups and reputation-based crowds are important to solidify adolescents’ social and personal identity (Brown et al.
1994). Being accepted in specific social groups with high status is highly valued (Eder
1985) and is sometimes pursued at the cost of intimate friendships with unpopular peers. Perceived popularity may have direct effects on global self-esteem, which is not mediated by the supportiveness of friendships (Litwack et al.
2012). One of the major functions of peers in adolescence may be to support the individuation processes related to developing independence from parents and developing a separate identity, which increases the relevance of belonging to a peer group and being accepted by peers (Rubin et al.
2006). Consequently, being accepted by peers may be crucial for maintaining a positive global self-esteem during adolescence.
One of the main ideas in the research on resilience is that protective factors may buffer against the negative effects of adversity. In Luthar et al.’s terminology (Luthar et al.
2000), both the main effect and interaction effects are viewed as protective factors. If peer acceptance has a main effect on global self-esteem, peer acceptance serves as a generally protective effect that is ameliorative for all adolescents, regardless of their closeness to parents.
In addition to having a general protective effect, peer acceptance may also moderate effects of other processes on global self-esteem. A moderator is a variable that affects the direction and/or strength of the relationship between a predictor variable and an outcome variable, resulting in an interaction effect between the predictor and moderator variables (Baron and Kenny
1986). The present article examines peer acceptance as a possible moderator of the association between closeness to parents and global self-esteem.
General protective effects (main effects) can be distinguished from interactive or moderating protective effect by using more specific terms that describe different types of moderating protective effects, such as “protective-stabilizing,” “protective but reactive,” and “protective-enhancing” (Luthar et al.
2000). A protective-stabilizing effect occurs when a protective factor contributes to stabilize individuals’ positive functioning in the face of risk. Thus, peer acceptance can be said to have a protective-stabilizing effect if peer acceptance fosters similar levels of global self-esteem across levels of closeness to parents. Thus, peer acceptance can act as a buffer and stabilize children’s global self-esteem in the face of a lack of closeness to parents. For example, low levels of closeness to parents may be associated with loneliness, depressive symptoms and fewer opportunities to learn social skills, which may be associated with a negative development of global self-esteem. Experiencing acceptance in a peer group may buffer against this effect by offering an arena where the adolescent belongs, can make friends and use social skills not acquired at home, which may increase positive global self-esteem. Furthermore, when parents are distant or not emotionally available, peers can provide positive feedback and concrete help. This may maintain the adolescents’ feelings about their positive value as persons, and keep their working models of attachment stable.
We are not aware of any studies that have explicitly examined whether peer acceptance moderates the relationship between closeness to parents and global self-esteem, which mean that we had to draw upon studies of similar phenomena. Some studies have found protective-stabilizing effects of different aspects of relationships with peers on global self-esteem or internalizing problems. For example, in a study of maltreated adolescents, friendship quality was found to have a protective-stabilizing effect on global self-esteem development (Bolger et al.
1998). Another study found that peer acceptance acted as a buffer against developing internalizing problems when the adolescents were rejected by parents (Sentse et al.
2010).These studies indicate that peer acceptance may have a protective-stabilizing effect on global self-esteem when closeness to parents is low.
Another possibility may be that peer acceptance fosters positive global self-esteem across levels of risk, but is particularly effective under low levels of risk. This implies that peer acceptance may be generally protective, but less so when children/adolescents have little closeness with their parents (protective but reactive interaction effect). Perhaps being accepted by peers is generally positive for global self-esteem, but adolescents may not benefit fully from being accepted by peers if they do not have close relationships with their parents. This may be because low levels of positive social relationship experiences with their parents also may put adolescents in a defensive position in other social relationships, for example, with peers, which can limit what the adolescent is able to gain from being accepted by peers. We are not aware of any studies that directly support a protective but reactive effect of peer acceptance on global self-esteem in the face of low closeness to parents. However, a study that examined the potential moderating effect of peer support on the negative impact of having a low adult support (from parents, teachers, and neighbors) on psychological well-being found that being supported by peers had a weaker protective effect as the degree of adult support decreased (Buchanan and Bowen
2008).
Finally, peer acceptance may facilitate higher global self-esteem in the face of adversity and thus may in fact serve to increase global self-esteem as risk increases (protective-enhancing interaction effect). Thus, high peer acceptance may allow adolescents with low closeness to their parents to learn and develop, with global self-esteem increasing as adolescents’ relationships with their parents deteriorate. In this case, high peer acceptance makes it possible to benefit from lower closeness to parents by providing a safe arena in which to process difficult experiences with parents and to learn from these experiences in a way that entails higher global self-esteem. Perhaps distant relationships with parents can encourage at least some adolescents to take more responsibility for themselves and feel better about themselves, as long as they have the second arena where are accepted.
There is also some support for the view that peer acceptance may have such a protective-enhancing effect. One study found that whereas little use of positive reinforcement from parents (“positive parenting”) was associated with internalizing problems among early adolescents with low quality friendships, the same potential risk factor led to slightly lower internalizing problems among their peers who reported high levels of friendship quality (Gaertner et al.
2010).
The evidence of possible moderating effects of aspects of peer relationships on the association between aspects of relationships with parents and psychological well-being is mixed. One explanation of these different findings may be that the studies use different types of samples who experience very different levels of closeness to parents. For example, Bolger et al. (
1998) used a sample of maltreated adolescents. In addition, the protective effects could depend on age and gender. Most of the earlier studies used samples of young adolescents, and there is a lack of studies comparing these relationships across time in a community sample of adolescents.
Differences in the Protective Effect of Peer Acceptance Across Age
Different relationships may have different functions at different points in development. For example, a study found that whereas parents were seen as the most frequent providers of support during early adolescence, friends and romantic partners were perceived as more supportive than parents during later adolescence (Furman and Buhrmester
1992). Friendships appear to play an increasingly important role with increasing age during adolescence (Rubin et al.
2006), which may indicate that being accepted by peers may have a stronger general protective effect among older adolescents than younger adolescents. In addition, while family relationships are the most important relationships during childhood, gradually other relationships, with friends and romantic partners, come to serve many of the same functions (Collins et al.
2007). If peers can serve some of the same functions as parents during later adolescence, global self-esteem may not be as strongly dependent on closeness to parents as in early adolescence. Thus, peer acceptance may both have a stronger effect on global self-esteem in general, and also may have a stronger moderating effect on the relationship between closeness to parents and global self-esteem among older than younger adolescents.
Gender Differences
Most studies have found gender differences in levels of global self-esteem (Kling et al.
1999), but the relationship between closeness to parents and global self-esteem may still be similar across gender. Parental support has been found to predict global self-esteem similarly across both genders (Rueger et al.
2010), and a meta-analysis revealed similar relationships between parental attachment and global self-esteem during college for both genders (Mattanah et al.
2011). Moreover, the studies of neither Sentse et al. (
2010) nor Gaertner et al. (
2010) found gender differences in the interaction effects between relationships to peers and aspects of relationships with parents, on internalizing problems. Therefore, the potential protective effect of peer acceptance on the relationships between having a less close relationship with parents and negative self-esteem are expected to be similar for males and females.