Parental Behavior and Contextual Variations in Adolescent Self-Esteem

The present study examines affect of contextual frames of reference on level of self-esteem expressed by adolescents and on relationship between certain parental behaviors and adolescent self-esteem. Five contexts were considered as frames of reference: classroom, family, friends, in heterosexual relations, and with adults. It was found that adolescents' self-esteem was highest in friends context and lowest in classroom. This variation was especially pronounced on power dimension of self-esteem, and less on self-worth dimension. Friends also ranked as context in which adolescents felt the most real, while in classroom they felt least real. Parental support (and to some extent control) was found to be significantly related to adolescent self-esteem only when adult frames of reference were used, i.e., family, classroom, and with adults. These were not antecedents of self-esteem when contextual referent for adolescent was his peers. This research suggests that social context is an important independent variable on self-esteem and cannot be assumed to be constant when dealing with self-variables.