Poster #223 - Pathways to Korean Adolescents' Life Satisfaction: The Role of Child Abuse, Peer Attachment, and Self-esteem

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Social Relationships

Integrative Statement

In line with the positive psychology movement, previous research indicates that life satisfaction is integrally associated with a wide range of intrapersonal functions, including physical, emotional, social, and academic. Thus, life satisfaction can be a key psychological strategy for adaptation (Suldo & Huebner, 2004). Likewise, following attachment theory (Bowlby, 1973), researchers confirmed that the affective quality of attachment to parents and peers is related to life satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescents (Raboteg-Saric & Sakic, 2014). However, during adolescence there is often increased conflict within parent and adolescent dyads; the adolescent perceives the parent as less affective (Paikoff and Brooks-Gunn, 1991). Moreover, negative parent-child interactions such as child abuse adversely affect children's psychological well-being and development of self-esteem (Kim & Cicchetti, 2006). On the other hand, adolescents perceive their peers as supportive, and faithfulness and loyalty in friendship become more prominent (Allen & Land, 1999). Thus, the goal of this study was to examine direct and indirect effects of child abuse and friend attachment on life satisfaction and self-esteem of early adolescents.
This study used three waves of data for 2,110 children, beginning at age 11 years, who participated in the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS). Latent Curve Modeling (LCM) was conducted for the purpose of study. The unconditional LCM was used to explore the trajectory of child abuse and peer attachment from age 11 to 13. These models showed excellent fit with the data (CFI = .99; SRMR = .02 and CFI = 1.00; SRMR = .01). In addition, there were individual differences in the initial levels of and changes in both variables over time (see Table 1). Next, the results of conditional LCM demonstrated four significant indirect pathways of child abuse or peer attachment to life satisfaction through self-esteem, after accounting for covariates (see Figure 1). First, the effect from the intercept of child abuse to life satisfaction via self-esteem was significant, β = -.10, p < .05, 95% CI [-.22, -.03]. Second, the effect from the slope of child abuse to life satisfaction via self-esteem was significant, β = -.19, p < .05, 95% CI [-.35, -.05]. Third, the effect from the intercept and slope of peer attachment to life satisfaction via self-esteem was significant, β = .06, p < .05, 95% CI [.01, .12]. Fourth, the effect from the slope of peer attachment to life satisfaction via self-esteem was significant, β = .12, p < .05, 95% CI [.04, .18].
The findings that the quality of adolescents’ relationships with parents and peers were directly related to self-esteem and life satisfaction are consistent with attachment theory. Interestingly, a full mediating effect showed that child abuse exerted its influence on life satisfaction through self-esteem. This study demonstrated the mediating role of self-esteem in interpersonal contexts (i.e. mother-child and peer relationships) and their longitudinal impact on life satisfaction during early adolescence. These findings suggest that programs designed to contribute to adolescents' life satisfaction should consider not only promoting positive relationships with parents and peers but also fostering self-esteem.

Authors

• Su Jung Park, Utah State University
  Presenting Author

• Krista L. Gurko, Utah State University
  Non-Presenting Author