Parental Attachment as a Mediator between Parental Social Support and Self-Esteem as Perceived by Korean Sports Middle and High School Athletes

Abstract

This study examined whether parental attachment mediates the relationship between parental social support and self-esteem in Korean middle and high school athletes. 591 sports athletes attending middle and high schools that specialize in sport volunteered. Parental social support and parental attachment had a significant positive effect on self-esteem; parental attachment had a greater effect on self-esteem. In the structural relationship, direct effects of parental social support on self-esteem were weak, but indirect effects through parental attachment were strong. Therefore, parental attachment complementally mediated the relationship between parental social support and self-esteem. Metric invariance was supported for groups categorized by sex, region, and school level, confirming that the model could be applied to various groups.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ainsworth

M. D.

Blehar

M. C.

Waters

Wall

(1978) Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Alfermann

Stambulova

(2007) Career transitions and career termination. In Tenenbaum

Eklund

R. C.

(Eds.), Handbook of sport psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley. Pp. 712–733.

Armsden

G. C.

Greenberg

M. T.

(1987) The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment: individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 16, 427–454.

Banaji

M. R.

Prentice

D. A.

(1994) The self in social contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 45(1), 297–332.

Baron

R. M.

Kenny

D. A.

(1986) The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173.

Barrera

Jr. (1986) Distinctions between social support concepts, measures, and models. American Journal of Community Psychology, 14(4), 413–445.

Bowlby

(1982) Attachment and loss. Vol. 1: attachment (2nd ed.) New York: Basic Books.

Carr

Fitzpatrick

(2011) Experiences of dyadic sport friendships as a function of self and partner attachment characteristics. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 12(4), 383–391.

Cobb

(1979) Social support and health through the life course. In Riley

M. W.

(Ed.), Aging from birth to death: interdisciplinary perspectives. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Pp. 93–106.

10.

Davis

Jowett

(2010) Investigating the interpersonal dynamics between coaches and athletes based on fundamental principles of attachment. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 4(2), 112–132.

11.

Drasgow

(1987) Study of the measurement bias of two standardized psychological tests. Journal of Applied Psychology, 72(1), 19.

12.

Erikson

(1959) Identity and the life cycle: selected papers. Psychological Issues, 1, 1–171.

13.

Felker

D. W.

(1968) Relationship between self-concept, body build, and perception of father's interest in sports in boys. Research Quarterly, 39(3), 513–517.

14.

Gauze

Bukowski

W. M.

Aquan-Assee

Sippola

L. K.

(1996) Interactions between family environment and friendship and associations with self-perceived well-being during early adolescence. Child Development, 67(5), 2201–2216.

15.

Gould

Lauer

Rolo

Jannes

Pennisi

(2008) The role of parents in tennis success: focus group interviews with junior coaches. The Sport Psychologist, 22(1), 18–37.

16.

Greenberg

M. T.

Siegel

J. M.

Leitch

C. J.

(1983) The nature and importance of attachment relationships to parents and peers during adolescence. Journal of Youth Adolescence, 12, 373–386.

17.

Hinde

R. A.

Finkenauer

Auhagen

A. E.

(2001) Relationships and self-concept. Personal Relationships, 8, 187–204.

18.

Holt

N. L.

Tamminen

K. A.

Black

D. E.

Sehn

Z. L.

Wall

M. P.

(2008) Parental involvement in competitive youth sport settings. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 9(5), 663–685.

19.

House

J. S.

Kahn

R. L.

(1985) Measures and concepts of social support. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

20.

L. T.

Bentler

P. M.

(1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55.

21.

Jeong

C. H.

Koo

W. Y.

Kwon

S. H.

Kim

B. J.

Kim

Y. S.

(2009) Sports psychology. Seoul, South Korea: Rainbow Books.

22.

Jöreskog

K. G.

Sörbom

(2012) EISREE 9.1: Structural equation modeling with the SIMPEIS command language. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

23.

Jowett

Cramer

(2010) The prediction of young athletes' physical self from perceptions of relationships with parents and coaches. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11(2), 140–147.

24.

Kihlstrom

X. E.

Cantor

(1983) Mental representations of the self. In Berkowitz

(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. Vol. 17. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Pp. 1–47.

25.

Kim

Y. J.

(2009) Developing an adolescent self-esteem measurement. Educational Research, 30(2), 1–22.

26.

Korea Institute of Sport Science. (2009) Career path of athletic students. Seoul, South Korea: KISS. Pp. 1–342.

27.

Marcia

X. E.

(1980) Identity in adolescence. In Adelson

(Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology. New York: Wiley. Pp. 159–187.

28.

Marrone

(1998) Attachment and interaction. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

29.

Meredith

(1993) Measurement invariance, factor analysis and factorial invariance. Psychometrika, 58(4), 525–543.

30.

Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. (2013) 2012 Sport White Paper. Seoul, South Korea: Author.

31.

Nunnally

J. C.

Bernstein

I. H.

(1994) Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.

32.

S. K.

Song

E. J.

Lim

S. W.

(2007) Causes of stress in the training camp for the athletes of physical education high school. Journal of Sport and Leisure Studies, 31, 525–534.

33.

Ohannessian

C. M.

Lerner

R. M.

Lerner

J. V.

von Eye

(1995) Discrepancies in adolescents' and parents' perceptions of family functioning and adolescent emotional adjustment. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 15(4), 490–516.

34.

(1997) The relationship between attachment security and depression in adolescence. Unpublished master's thesis, Ehwa Womans Univer., Seoul, South Korea.

35.

Rosenberg

(1965) Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer. Press.

36.

Schultheiss

D. E. P.

Blustein

D. L.

(1994) Role of adolescent-parent relationships in college student development and adjustment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 41(2), 248.

37.

Seong

C. H.

Yoo

S. J.

(2011) Factors of perceived parental social supports and profile in adolescent sports. The Korean Journal of Physical Education–Natural Science, 50(1), 83–92.

38.

Smith

T. L.

(1986) Self-concepts of youth sport participants and nonparticipants in grades 3 and 6. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 62(3), 863–866.

39.

Y. H.

(2009) The influences of exercise stress on mental health in physical education high school athletes. Korean Journal of Sport Psychology, 20(2), 47–62.

40.

Y. H.

(2011) The relationship between perfectionism, competition anxiety, and burnout of physical education high school athletes. Korean Journal of Sport Psychology, 22(1), 77–92.

41.

Tesser

Campbell

(1983) Self-definition and self-evaluation maintenance. In Suls

Greenwald

(Eds.), Psychological perspectives on the self. Vol. 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 1–31.

42.

Wallin

D. J.

(2007) Attachment in psychotherapy. New York: Guilford Press.

43.

Widaman

K. F.

Reise

S. P.

(1997) Exploring the measurement invariance of psychological instruments: applications in the substance use domain. In Bryant

K. J.

Windle

West

S. G.

(Eds.), The science of prevention: methodological advances from alcohol and substance abuse research. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Pp. 281–324.

44.

Wilktnson

R. B.

(2004) The role of parental and peer attachment in the psychological health and self-esteem of adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 33(6), 479–493.

45.

Wood

J. V.

Taylor

K. L.

(1991) Serving self-relevant goals through social comparison. In Suls

Wills

T. A.

(Eds.), Social composition: contemporary theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 23–49.

46.

Wylleman

Lavallee

(2004) A developmental perspective on transitions faced by athletes. In Weiss

M. R.

(Ed.), Developmental sport and exercise psychology: a lifespan perspective. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology. Pp. 507–527.

47.

Zhao

Lynch

J. G.

Chen

(2010) Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: myths and truths about mediation analysis. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(2), 197–206.