The role of reappraisal and suppression in the relationship between maternal warmth and adolescents’ self-esteem

Abstract

This thesis examines the underlying mechanism of the relationship between maternal warmth and self-esteem in Turkish adolescents while considering gender and self construal characteristics. Two commonly used emotion regulation strategies were examined as potential mediator variables: cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression. The sample consisted of 310 Turkish mothers (Mage = 43.35, SDage = 5.59) and their adolescent-aged children (121 boys, 189 girls; Mage = 15.61, SDage = .49). Mothers completed a family demographics form and a parenting behavior scale. Adolescents evaluated their mothers’ parenting behaviors and their own self-esteem, attachment quality, and use of emotion regulation strategies, as well as their self construal. Analyses revealed that maternal warmth was significantly and positively related to adolescents’ self-esteem. Furthermore, adolescents who used more reappraisal when distressed were more likely to have greater self-esteem. Maternal warmth was also significantly and positively correlated with adolescents’ reappraisal use. Suppression, however, was related neither to self-esteem nor to maternal warmth. The results also revealed that reappraisal mediated the relationship between maternal warmth and self esteem, but suppression did not. Furthermore, adolescents’ gender moderated this explanatory mechanism such that the mediational role of reappraisal between maternal warmth and self-esteem was significant only among boys. Adolescents were grouped into three clusters based on their two self-construal scores: psychological interdependence, independence, and interdependence. The mediational role of reappraisal between warmth and self-esteem was significant for psychological interdependence and interdependence clusters, but the mediational role of suppression in this relationship was significant only for the interdependence cluster.