Maternal parenting and the development of adolescent self‐esteem: A longitudinal twin study

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical period for self‐esteem development, yet the extent to which perceived maternal parenting practices are prospectively associated with self‐esteem after accounting for overlapping genetic and shared environmental influences remains unclear. Using longitudinal TwinLife data from 1524 German twins (323 monozygotic and 439 same‐sex dizygotic twin pairs), this study examined perceived maternal warmth and psychological control from ages 13 to 15. Classical twin models decomposed genetic and environmental variance and covariance, and ACE‐beta models estimated prospective associations with self‐esteem at age 15. Univariate ACE models indicated developmental shifts in the genetic and shared environmental contributions to perceived parenting, whereas self‐esteem showed a relatively stable pattern and substantial nonshared environmental variance. Bivariate ACE models showed a positive shared environmental correlation between warmth and self‐esteem (rC = .78) and a negative genetic correlation between psychological control and self‐esteem (rA = −.68). Within the ACE‐beta parameterization, warmth at age 13 was prospectively associated with higher self‐esteem at age 15 (β ₂₁  = .28), whereas psychological control was associated with lower self‐esteem (β ₂₁  = −.17), after adjustment for prior self‐esteem and covariates. These prospective associations are consistent with, but do not uniquely establish, directional effects of parenting on later self‐esteem. The findings support maternal warmth and autonomy‐respecting practices as plausible targets for promoting adolescent self‐worth.