Role of Social Comparison and Interpersonal Skills in Positive Parenting and Self-Esteem in Pakistani Adolescents: A Serial Mediation Analysis

Abstract

The current research explored the serial mediating role of social comparison and interpersonal skills in the association between positive parenting and self-esteem in adolescents. The participants for this study comprised 674 (boys = 47%, girls = 53%) adolescents recruited from the mainstream government school of Lahore, an urbanized city of Pakistan, by using a multistage sampling technique. Participants for this research have an age range of 12–19 years (M = 14.88, SD = 1.33). Parenting Style Scale for Adolescents, Self-Esteem Scale for Children, Social Comparison Scale, and Interpersonal Skills Scale were used to measure the positive parenting, self-esteem, social comparison, and interpersonal skills, respectively. Based on the study results, it was concluded that social comparison and interpersonal skills partially mediate the relationship between positive parenting and self-esteem. The results of the research are discussed in the light of pertinent literature, and some recommendations were given for upcoming studies.

Keywords

parenting self-esteem social comparison interpersonal skills adolescents

Adolescence is that stage of life during which an individual undergoes numerous changes (e.g., cognitive, social, and physical) and with several new experiences (e.g., social and emotional demands) that may influence their mental health and well-being (Colins & Grisso, 2019; Lin & Yi, 2017; Saleem & Mahmood, 2011b). During adolescence, they tend to start paying attention to themselves and develop new roles and identities, and their adjustment to life depends upon how well they learn skills to meet these new demands (Keizer et al., 2019). Researchers have repetitively used self-esteem as a proxy for adolescents’ psychological well-being (Wang et al., 2020), positive mental health (Masselink et al., 2018; Rosenberg, 1979), and psychological adjustment (Gao et al., 2019; Phinney, 1991). Self-esteem is said to have a long-lasting impact on almost all areas of an adolescent’s life. Having a higher level of self-esteem is linked with several positive outcomes including confidence, academic achievement, academic performance, and happiness (Arshad et al., 2015; D’Mello et al., 2018; Huey et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020), whereas a lower level of self-esteem has been linked with several negative consequences like delinquency, substance use, conduct problems, depression, anxiety, stress, aggressive behavior, and loneliness (Gao et al., 2019; Masselink et al., 2018). Therefore, it is important to study the factors that play a vital role in boosting the self-esteem of adolescents.

Literature explored that self-esteem originates from relationships with others (Weisskirch, 2013), particularly parents have a noteworthy contribution to the construction of children’s self-esteem (Keizer et al., 2019). Attachment theory indicates that positive parenting (affectionate and caring) and secure attachment relationships with parents enhance positive and constructive feelings of self-concept and self-worth (Allen, 2016). More precisely, affectionate, trustworthy, caring, supportive, and warm parents deliver a secure base for children for developing a sense of self as worthy of care and loveable (Green et al., 2018). The trust produced by a positive parent–child relationship develops confidence in children to explore and engage in new challenges, experiences, and practices, knowing that parents’ support, assistance, and care are available (Liu et al., 2018). According to this theoretical outlook, it can be concluded that children having protected, safe, affectionate, caring, and supportive parent–child relationships are more likely to have positive self-concept as compared to children having insecure, unsupportive, and negative relationships (Thompson, 2016). Overall, children who perceive positive attachment with their parents are most likely to have greater levels of self-esteem (Keizer et al., 2019; Thompson, 2016).

Another important developmental domain of the adolescence period is expanding the social world, where individuals tend to develop a social and interpersonal relationship with peers, friends, and members of the opposite sex (Okros, 2020; Van Der Graaff et al., 2018). During this period, the process of social comparison tends to start (Karckay, 2009). Comparison with others is one of the means for self-concept, self-assessment, and self-esteem (Bergagna & Tartaglia, 2018; Festinger, 1954; Vogel et al., 2014). Positive or favorable social comparison promoted inspiration and is associated with a positive self-concept. On the other hand, having a negative social comparison promoted a sense of inferiority and negative self-concept (Vogel et al., 2014). Social comparison procedures link the gap among problems of self and the sense of personal identity on the one hand, and social and interpersonal skills and intergroup processes on the other (Cheng & Lam, 2007). Having positive social comparison is associated with several positive consequences including self-esteem, interpersonal skills, well-being, and psychosocial and emotional functioning (Endedijk et al., 2019). Furthermore, the success of dynamic and intense social interaction during adolescence lies in the learning of new interpersonal skills and pro-social behaviors that facilitate social growth and development (Raposa et al., 2016). Interpersonal skills are those skills that facilitate a relationship or construct a relationship, and these skills are also associated with positive outcomes like achievement, self-concept, self-confidence, self-esteem, and lower level of loneliness and mental health problems (Backman et al., 2018; Bester, 2019; Padilla-Walker et al., 2018; Zhang & Eggum-Wilkens, 2018).

Several factors contribute significantly to the learning of social comparison and interpersonal skills, and parenting is said to be the primary source of learning of socialization for adolescents (Emagnaw & Hong, 2018). Emotionally warmth, responsive, affectionate, and caring parenting is positively associated with interpersonal skills and positive social comparison in children and adolescents (Padilla-Walker et al., 2018). Parental support and affection play an important role in the construction of a secure and positive parent–child attachment (Bowlby, 1973; Lewallen & Neece, 2015), which in turn has been linked with children’s positive and productive social functioning (Zarra-Nezhad et al., 2018). According to the social learning theory, children tend to learn new behaviors through observation and modeling (Bandura, 1963). Many studies have supported this notion that parent–child interaction and modeling of social comparison and interpersonal skills in their interactions foster social facilitation and learning of social skills in children (Fenesy et al., 2019; Wu et al., 2016). Keeping in view the importance of social factors (social comparison and interpersonal skills), it is essential to study concerning parenting and self-esteem.

In summary, adolescence is a crucial period of growth and development where individuals learn social and emotional skills to cope with the pressures and demands of this transitory period (Colins & Grisso, 2019). Keeping given positive consequences of self-esteem in youth, researchers are now more concerned in finding factors playing role in boosting the self-esteem of children and adolescents (D’Mello et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2020). In the current research, we are interested in identifying the role of positive parenting, social comparison, and interpersonal skills concerning self-esteem in a sample of Pakistani adolescents. The existing study was aimed to investigate the serial mediating role of social comparison and interpersonal skills in the association between positive parenting and self-esteem in adolescents.

Method

Participants

A sample of 674 participants (boys = 315 (47%), girls = 359 (53%)) aged 12–19 years (M = 14.88, SD = 1.33) were recruited through multistage sampling strategy from seven mainstream government schools of Lahore, Pakistan. Pakistan has three key educational systems named as government or public schools, private schools, and madrassa. Government or public schools are the most prevalent and popular educational system in Pakistan due to their homogeneity in teaching methods, curriculum, and affordability, and most of the lower, lower middle, and middle class acquire education in these schools due to affordability and financial issues. Moreover, in Pakistan, educational institutes are separate for both gender till university levels. Therefore, main strata were made based on gender (girls and boys), and additional substrata were made according to academic grade (eighth, ninth, and 10th). Participants in this study were predominantly living in a nuclear family system (59%).

Measures

Demographic form

Basic demographic information including age, academic grade, gender, and family system was also obtained along with study measures.

Parenting Style Scale for Adolescents (PSSA)

Positive parenting was measured by two subscales (Caring Parenting and Affectionate Parenting) of the PSSA (Saleem et al., 2017) specifically developed for Pakistani adolescents. The scale comprises 31 items with four response options as follows: 0 (never), 1 (sometimes), 2 (often), and 3 (very often). Scores were obtained by calculating the sum of scores on each item of the scale with possible scores ranging from 0 to 93. Cronbach’s α for PSSA for the current study was .80 suggesting good internal consistency of the scale.

Social Comparison Scale (SCS)

Social comparison of the participants was measured using the SCS (Irons & Gilbert, 2005). There are 10 bipolar constructs in the scale rated on a 10-point Likert-type scale through which participants make comprehensive comparisons of their selves concerning other people. Scores were obtained by calculating the sum of scores on each item of the scale with a high score indicating a more positive social comparison (i.e., participants feel more attractive, different, accepted, and popular in comparison to their friends). For the existing study, Cronbach’s α for SCS was .70 indicating good internal consistency of the scale.

Interpersonal Skills Scale (IPSS)

IPSS (Zahra et al., 2020) was used to assess the interpersonal skills of the participants. It consists of 43 items having a 5-point rating scale: 0 (not at all), 1 (rarely), 2 (to some extent), 3 (very much), and 4 (always). Scores were obtained by calculating the sum of scores on each item of the scale. Possible scores ranged from 0 to 172, and high scores indicate greater interpersonal skills. For the current study, Cronbach’s α for the IPSS was .76 suggesting good internal consistency of the scale.

Self-Esteem Scale for Children (SESC)

Three subscales of the SESC (Saleem & Mahmood, 2011a) were used to assess the self-esteem of the participants. It consists of 34 items with a 5-point rating scale: 0 (not at all), 1 (rarely), 2 (to some extent), 3 (very much), and 4 (always). Scores were obtained by calculating the sum of scores on each item of the scale with possible scores ranging from 0 to 136. For the current study, Cronbach’s α for SESC was .76 indicating good internal consistency of the scale.

Procedure

After getting approval from Institutional Ethical Committee, a request for permission to gather data was sent to eight mainstream schools of Lahore, an urbanized city of Pakistan, along with the main objectives and aim of the study. School authorities were also clarified the inclusion criteria based on age, gender, and academic class. Seven (three boys’ schools and four girls’ schools) out of eight schools gave their consent to participate in the study. After permission was gained by competent authorities of the school, the researcher personally visited the schools, and verbal consent to participate in the study from class teachers and participants was also taken. Participants were also assured about the confidentiality and privacy of the information taken from them. Data were collected in groups of approximately 25–30 students. The average time to complete the research protocol was 25 min approximately. In the end, the debriefing session to the participants was given in which they were encouraged to ask any questions and additional information about the study.

Results

Pearson product–moment correlation was conducted to investigate the association between study variables. Obtained findings and descriptive statistics are shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Intercorrelations Among Positive Parenting, Self-Esteem, Social Comparison, and Interpersonal Skills in Adolescents.

Variables	M	SD	PP	SE	SC	IPS
PP	56.80	8.67	—	.38***	.12***	.31***
SE	94.13	13.78	—	—	.25***	.68***
SC	57.85	15.79	—	—	—	.16***
IPS	117.37	17.82	—	—	—	—

Note. N = 674. PP = positive parenting; SE = self-esteem; SC = social comparison; IPS = interpersonal skills.

p < .001, df = 673.

Findings reported in the Table 1 suggest that positive parenting was significantly positively associated with self-esteem (r = .38; p < .001), social comparison (r = .12; p < .001), and interpersonal skills (r = .31; p < .001). Furthermore, self-esteem was also positively associated with social comparison (r = .25; p < .001) and interpersonal skills (r = .68; p < .001). Moreover, significant positive association of social comparison and interpersonal skills (r = .16; p < .001) was also found.

In order to explore the serial mediation analysis of social comparison and interpersonal skills in the association between positive parenting and self-esteem, Hayes’ (2018) bootstrapping approach was used (see Table 2). Figure 1 shows that total effect of positive parenting on self-esteem (β = .60, SE = .06, p < .001) was significant. Furthermore, the direct effect of positive parenting on social comparison (β = .22, SE = .07, p < .001) and interpersonal skills (β = .51, SE = .06, p < .01) was significant. Additionally, the direct effect of social comparison as first mediating variable on interpersonal skills as the second mediating variable (β = .13, SE = .04, p < .001) was also significant. In contrast, an examination of the direct effects of the mediating variables on self-esteem exhibited that the direct effects of social comparison (β = .11, SE = .02, p < .001) and interpersonal skills (β = .53, SE = .03, p < .001) were significant. Findings suggest that social comparison and interpersonal skills partially mediate the association between positive parenting and self-esteem, as after controlling the mediating variables the direct effect of positive parenting on self-esteem is reduced (β = .29, SE = .05, p < .001), but c’ path is still significant.

Table 2.

Regression Coefficients, Standard Error, and Model Summary Information for the Positive Parenting, Social Comparison, Interpersonal Skills, and Self-Esteem of Adolescents Mediation Analysis.

Antecedent	Consequent
	M1 (SC)				M2 (IPS)				Y (SE)
		β	SE	p		β	SE	p		β	SE	p
PP (X)	a1	.22	.07	.001***	a2	.60	.08	.001***	c’	.28	.05	.001***
SC (M1)									b1	.12	.02	.001***
IPS (M2)									b2	.46	.02	.001***
Constant	i	45.18	4.00	.001***	i	62.56	3.96	.001***	i	18.56	3.24	.001***
	R² = .02					R ² = .11				R² = .50
F(1, 670) = 10.33, p = .001**					F(2, 669) = 41.11, p = .001***				F(3, 668) = 226.36, p = .001***

Note. N = 674. PP = positive parenting; SC = social comparison; IPS = interpersonal skills; SE = self-esteem.

***p < .001.

Figure 1.

Serial multiple mediation of social comparison and interpersonal skills in the relationship between positive parenting and self-esteem.

Indirect effects within the established model in this study were also investigated over 5,000 bootstrap samples by taking estimates at a 95% confidence interval (CI). The bias-corrected and accelerated CI (BCa CI) findings are described in Table 3. Findings depict that the total indirect effect (the difference between total and direct effects/c − c’) of positive parenting via social comparison and interpersonal skills on self-esteem is statistically significant (point estimate = .32; 95% BCa CI [.24, .40]). Within the current tested model, when considering the mediating variables distinctly and jointly in association with the mediating indirect effects of positive parenting on self-esteem, single mediation of social comparison (point estimate = .03; 95% BCa CI [.01, .05]), single mediation of interpersonal skills (point estimate= .28; 95% BCa CI [.21, .36]), and serial multiple mediation of social comparison and interpersonal skills (point estimate = .01; 95% BCa CI [.00, .03]) were found statistically significant.

Table 3.

Comparison of the Indirect Effects of Positive Parenting on Self-Esteem Through Social Comparison and Interpersonal Skills and Its Specific Indirect Effects.

	Product of Coefficients		Bootstrapping 95% BCa Confidence Interval
Effects	Point Estimates	SE	Lower	Upper
Total indirect effects	.32	.04	.24	.40
PP → SC → SE	.03	.01	.01	.05
PP →IPS → SE	.28	.04	.21	.36
PP → SC → IPS → SE	.01	.01	.00	.03

Note. PP = positive parenting; SC = social comparison; IPS = interpersonal skills; SE = self-esteem.

Discussion

Adolescence is that stage of life during which adolescents form new identities, they redefine themselves in several areas of their life, and they tend to start paying attention to themselves and start developing new identities and roles (Keizer et al., 2019). Researchers have repetitively used self-esteem as a proxy for adolescents’ psychological well-being (Wang et al., 2020), positive mental health (Masselink et al., 2018; Rosenberg, 1979), and psychological adjustment (Gao et al., 2019; Phinney, 1991). Keeping given positive consequences of self-esteem, researchers are now interested in identifying the factors associated with self-esteem in adolescents. Furthermore, psychology is not an interplay of one variable to another, rather a combination of psychosocial and familial factors that determine the self-esteem. Therefore, the current research explored the enhancing role of positive parenting, social comparison, and interpersonal skills in the self-esteem of adolescents.

The findings of this study indicated that social comparison and interpersonal skills partially mediate the relationship between positive parenting and self-esteem in adolescents. Positive parenting, social comparison, and interpersonal skills emerged as enhancing factors of self-esteem in adolescents. Parents play an important and supportive role in the emotional, social, intellectual, and psychological development and growth of children (Emagnaw & Hong, 2018). Children do not merely inherent physical characteristics but also learn personal values, identity, self-concept, self-esteem, and social skills. The positive, affectionate, caring, and supportive parent–child relationship enables the children to develop an internal working model (Bowlby, 1982) which assists adolescents in developing a positive view of the self that he is valued and lovable. Therefore, children having a positive sense of bonding with their parents have a positive self-concept and consequently would have a higher level of self-esteem (Bowlby, 1973). These findings are consistent with previous literature that also reported that a person who perceives positive relationships with their parents would have a higher level of self-esteem (Green et al., 2018; Keizer et al., 2019).

Furthermore, social factors like social comparison and interpersonal skills are also the most prominent enhancing factors of self-esteem in adolescents. Adolescence is that stage of life during which several social changes take place that largely influence the development and adjustment of adolescents (Sadovnikova, 2016). It is a period of intensifying social world, where individuals tend to develop social and interpersonal relationships with peers and friends, start comparing themselves with others, and learning new interpersonal skills that facilitate a relationship or construct a relationship (Rodriguez et al., 2015). At this stage, having positive social comparison and successful development of interpersonal skills during this period is associated with positive self-concept and personal identity which in turn become the source of accelerated self-esteem (Bergagna & Tartaglia, 2018; Endedijk et al., 2019; Vogel et al., 2014). These findings are also supported by previous literature which also indicated that having positive and upward social comparison and a higher level of interpersonal skills is positively associated with an accelerated level of self-esteem (Cheng & Lam, 2007; Endedijk et al., 2019; Raposa et al., 2016; Weisskirch, 2013). Social comparison theory posits that that people have an innate drive to evaluate themselves, often in comparison to others, and this comparison process is a way of developing as a benchmark through which we can make accurate evaluations of ourselves and also develop interpersonal and social skills (Festinger, 1954). There are several sources of socialization agents during adolescence, and among these agents, positive parenting is one of the most important sources for developing social skills (Lewallen & Neece, 2015; Zarra-Nezhad et al., 2018). The first social interaction with which an individual is exposed is parents. Individuals can learn social and interpersonal skills from parents through a social learning process and modeling. Bandura’s (1963) social learning theory also supports this conception. He argued that observation of a model’s behavior may elicit imitative responses from the children. Bowlby (1973) also stated that secure and positive attachment with parents is positively associated with children’s effective social functioning.

Limitations and Recommendations

Despite several implications, the current research has some limitations also. First, data were collected from only urbanized populations, and future research can be made as a comparison between urban and rural samples. Second, data were collected merely from government schools setting, and future research can also gain data from private schools. Third, this study used self-report measures, and it is further recommended to use some informant-rated measures also. Fourth, this study used a cross-sectional research design, and future research might use a longitudinal research design. Fifth, the upper class was not incorporated in the study, as the sample was comprised of mainstream government school students where most of the lower, lower middle, and middle class gains education due to their financial issues. Therefore, it is highly recommended that future research can incorporate the upper class also to enhance the applicability of the research. Finally, this study comprised of highly urbanized sample of Lahore, Pakistan. However, we can replicate this study by identifying subcultural differences in Pakistan, and we can replicate this research internationally by translating the study measures into the English language.

Conclusion

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Sayyeda Taskeen Zahra

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