Adolescent Closeness to Parents and Young Adult Global Self-esteem: the Moderating Role of Natural Mentoring Relationship

Theories suggest that relationships play an important role in self-esteem. Close relationships with parents during adolescence revealed direct and long-term effects on self-esteem. The past research demonstrated that a natural mentor significantly positively affected adolescents\u27 phycological outcomes. Whether it directly influences psychological well-being or is a protective factor for at-risk youths, a greater likelihood of favorable outcomes was demonstrated when adolescents are close to their parents or have natural mentoring relationships. However, there has been a gap in the literature about the moderating role of the natural mentoring relationships (NMRs) between closeness to parents and children\u27s global self-esteem. To better understand how different relationships affect youth\u27s self-esteem, the current study addressed this gap by using The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health to investigate the moderating role of natural mentoring relationships and the characteristics (duration of relationship and closeness to mentor). The results showed favorable outcomes. Results replicated previous findings in the significant correlation between closeness to parents and the natural mentoring relationship on self-esteem. In the relationship between closeness to parents during adolescence and global self-esteem in adulthood, having a natural mentor predicted more favorable outcomes in global self-esteem with closeness to mother. Further analyses did not find significant moderating effects of closeness to mentor and duration of mentorship. Thus, the results emphasized the importance of close relationships during adolescence self-esteem development—especially having natural mentoring relationships. Keywords: natural mentoring relationship, closeness to parents, global self-esteem, moderation analysis, secondary data analysi