The Role of Emotion Dysregulation and Self-Esteem in the Relationships Between Parenting Styles and Adolescents’ Impostor Feelings: A Multiple Mediation Model by Parent and Child Gender

The study probes the relationship between parenting styles and three adolescents' psychological outcome variables: impostor phenomenon, self-esteem, and emotion dysregulation. Using path analysis, it aimed at testing the mediating role played by the latter two variables in the association between parenting and adolescents' impostor feelings, while differentiating between maternal and paternal parenting effect in the context of the child's gender. The sample consisted of 103 adolescent males and 117 females whose mean age was 14.10 ± 1.53. The participants took part in an online survey, where they reported their parents' parenting styles and their psychological variables using battery of instruments. For mothers, authoritative parenting was directly associated among male adolescents and indirectly associated (<i>via</i> higher self-esteem) among female adolescents with lower impostor feelings. For fathers, a similar an indirect association <i>via</i> self-esteem was recorded solely among male adolescents. Emotion dysregulation was found to be uniquely related to authoritarian parenting among adolescent females and to permissive parenting among adolescent males. Respectively, these psychological variables mediated the relationships between parenting styles and adolescents' impostor feelings. The study contributes unique evidence for the role played by emotion dysregulation and self-esteem in explaining adolescents' impostor feelings, while considering the importance of parenting styles and parent-child gender.