Formative Parental Competencies and Parenting Stress as Predictors of Children’s Self-Esteem

Abstract

Background. Nurturing and responsive parenting, along with parental competencies that foster child development, are the foundation for healthy emotional and psychological growth, as they provide children and adolescents with a secure environment in which they feel valued, understood, and capable of coping with everyday challenges. From this perspective, the quality of family interactions plays a central role in the development of children’s self-esteem. Objective. To analyze the relationship among formative parental competencies, parental stress, and children’s self-esteem. Design. The sample of 332 participants comprised 166 children aged 8 to 12 years and their caregivers. The E2P v.2 scale, the PSI-SF, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were administered, after obtaining consent from the parents and/or caregivers and assent from the children. Results. At a correlational level, formative parental competencies were negatively associated with parental stress, and positively associated with children’s self-esteem, while parental stress was negatively associated with that self-esteem. When examining the relationships using structural equation modeling, formative parental competencies were associated with less stress and higher self-esteem in children, without showing a direct effect of stress on the children’s self-esteem. Conclusion. These findings suggest that the quality of parenting practices is associated with lower levels of parental stress and higher levels of children’s self-esteem, highlighting its potential role as a protective factor. This pattern of associations may inform the design of interventions aimed at strengthening parental competencies aligned with positive parenting, without implying causal effects.