Examination of the relationship between parental attitudes, empathy and self-esteem

Parental attitudes, empathy and self-esteem are important concepts that shape an individual's life. In this study, the relationship between parental attitudes, empathy and self-esteem was examined. The participants of the study consist of 393 (325 female, 68 male) individuals over the age of 18 living in Istanbul. Participants were asked to fill out forms via the internet. "Personal Information Form", "Parental Attitude Scale", "Basic Empathy Scale" and "Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale" were used in the study. In line with the questions asked to the participants, the sub-dimensions of empathy and parental attitudes and the level of differentiation of self-esteem scores according to gender were analyzed with statistical tests. Independent (unrelated) groups t-test, which is a parametric measurement method, was used to compare groups in Comparison Analyses. In the study, Pearson Correlation was applied to examine the relationship between empathy, self-esteem and perceived parental attitudes. Hierarchical regression analysis was applied to examine its predictive value among the variables found to be related. In line with the significant relationship found in the hierarchical regression analysis, the 4th model was applied in the PROCESS plugin within the SPSS 25.0 package program to examine the mediating effect in the predictive relationship. The significance values were taken at 0.05 and 0.01 levels in the analyses. According to gender, the empathy, self-esteem and parental attitudes of the participants do not differ significantly. Age of the participants and self-esteem (r(391)=-.23; p<0.01) and perceived democratic parenting attitude (r(391)=-.13; p<0.01) were found to be negatively and significantly related. Cognitive empathy and perceived democratic parenting attitude (r(391)=.16; p<0.01) were found to be positively and significantly related. Emotional empathy and self-esteem (r(391)=.12; p<0.05), perceived protective-demanding parental attitude (r(391)=.19; p<0.01) and perceived authoritarian parental attitude (r( 391)=.12; p<0.05) was found to be positively and significantly related.A positive and significant correlation was found between empathy total score and perceived protective-demanding parental attitude (r(391)=.18; p<0.01).