Perceived Quality of the Mother–Adolescent and Father–Adolescent Attachment Relationship and Adolescents’ Self-Esteem

There is consensus in the literature that self-esteem stems from relationships with others. In particular, it is assumed that parents play an important role in the development of children’s self-esteem, also in adolescence. Despite the importance of parent–child attachment relationships for adolescents’ self-esteem, we know very little about the extent to which fathers and mothers uniquely contribute to adolescents’ self-esteem. The current study aims to contribute to acquiring knowledge in this research area in three ways. First, by separating the potential influences of father–child and mother–child attachment relationships on sons’ and daughters’ self-esteem, the current study is able to investigate the individual contribution of the father–child and mother–child attachment relationship to female and male adolescent’s self-esteem. Second, by controlling for changes in the quality of the parental relationship and peer relationships the current study is able to isolate linkages between changes in adolescents’ perce