The relationship between parenting styles and self-congruence of undergraduate students: Core self-evaluation as a mediator

We investigated the relationships between parenting styles and children’s core self-evaluation and self-congruence, and further explored the mediating effect of children’s core self-evaluation in the relationship between parenting style and self-congruence. The survey participants were 385 undergraduate students at four public universities in Shandong, China. The results show that the students’ perception of parental rejection and overprotection were positively correlated with their self-congruence, and that parental emotional warmth and students’ core self-evaluation were negatively related to their self-congruence. Further, students’ core self-evaluation partially mediated the relationship between their perception of parental overprotection/emotional warmth and their self-congruence. We determined that the mechanism of the effect of parenting styles on self-congruence was as follows: High levels of parental overprotection or low levels of emotional warmth reduce the level of core self-evaluation of undergraduate students, which further contributes to inconsistency in their self-congruence.