Perceived Family and Peer Transactions and Self-Esteem among Urban Early Adolescents

This research extends previous work that identified groups of youth characterized by profiles of perceived family and peer transactions. Predictions derived from self-enhancement and self-consistency theories concerning how such transactions might relate to self-esteem in a diverse sample of early adolescents (N = 635) were investigated. Both theories indicate independent contributions of family and peer transactions to self-esteem. The theories differ, however, with regard to implications for how the two microsystems might interrelate in their linkages with self-esteem, with self-enhancement theory implying a moderational model and self-consistency theory a mediational model. As predicted, family and peer profiles each made independent contributions to the prediction of self-esteem. Consistent with self-consistency theory, the relations of family transactions to self-esteem were mediated in part by their associations with peer transactions, with particularly strong linkages evident between qualitatively similar profiles of family and peer experiences. Support for a moderational model, however, was not found.