Cognitive Overgeneralization, Parental Authority, and Self-Esteem.

This study examined the relationship of adolescents' self-esteem (SE) to the familial variables of parental permissiveness, authoritarianism, and authoritativeness and to the cognitive variables of high standards, self-criticism, and overgeneralization. Participants (N=99) were college students from a coeducational, liberal arts university. Participants completed a mothers' authority questionnaire; a fathers' authority questionnaire; the Attitudes Toward Self Scale; a self-esteem questionnaire; and a demographic information sheet. Consistent with previous findings, both Mother's and Father's Authoritarianism were inversely related to SE whereas Mother's and Father's Authoritativeness were directly related to SE. However, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that these effects of parental authority were strongly overshadowed by the cognitive variable of Overgeneralization. The tendency to overgeneralize from failure in a specific situation to a general sense of failure was associated with 33.6% of the variance in SE; the authority variables accounted for an additional 12.2% of the SE variance. One implication of these findings is the suggestion that investigations of SE development include more than one domain of potential influence. A related practical implication of these findings is a suggestion that those programs which are designed to assist adults in their role as parents should continue to instruct these individuals in appropriate uses of authority. (ABL)