The Mediating Effect of Self-Efficacy in the Connections between Strength-Based Parenting, Happiness and Psychological Distress in Teens

Abstract

Preliminary studies of strength-based parenting (SBP), a style of parenting that seeks to build strengths knowledge and strengths use in one’s child, have reported benefits such as higher life satisfaction, subjective wellbeing, and positive emotions together with lower stress in children and teens. Two proximal mediators conveying these effects have been identified: teen’s own use of strengths and strength-based coping, along with a small moderating effect of growth mindsets relating to strengths. The current study tests the potential mediating effect of self-efficacy, a sense of agency in life, in the relationship between SBP and mental health (wellbeing and illbeing) in teens. Self efficacy has been linked to wellbeing and strengths processes in past studies and is classed as a basic human need and form of eudaimonic happiness. This study reconfirmed the adaptive benefits of SBP in a large sample of Australian adolescents (N = 11,368; 59% male; Mage = 14.04, SDage = 1.99) sourced from 28 schools. Using structural equation modeling, SBP significantly and directly predicted higher happiness and lower depression, with direct effects falling into the 85th and 95th percentile of meta-analytically derived individual differences effect sizes. In addition, self-efficacy was a significant partial mediator, accounting for 40.0% of the total effect on happiness and 52.7% of the total effect on distress. Self-efficacy was also a full mediator in the case of anxiety, with a strong indirect effect. Results suggest that building strengths in teens can also build self-efficacy, and given the large effect sizes, that SBP is a promising leverage point for increasing teen wellbeing.

Observing Change Over Time in Strength-Based Parenting and Subjective Wellbeing for Pre-teens and Teens

“…Several new strands of positive psychology research are being applied in parenting and family research both in clinical/at risk families and mainstream families. These strands of research include mindful parenting (Dumas, 2005; Geurtzen et al, 2015; Waters, 2016), family centered positive psychology (Sheridan et al, 2004; Sheridan and Burt, 2009), positive family therapy (Shapiro, 2004; Conoley et al, 2015), empathy (Farrant et al, 2011), compassion-focused parenting (Neff and McGehee, 2010; Kirby, 2017; Kirby and Baldwin, 2018) and SBP (Waters, 2015a, b, 2017; Waters and Sun, 2016; Jach et al, 2017; Loton and Waters, 2017; Waters et al, 2019).…”

“…The ‘cultivate’ element of the SBP definition includes both the ‘use and develop’ aspects of a process model of strengths and, thus aligns with both Govindji and Linley’s (2007) process model (knowledge and use) as well as the model of Biswas-Diener et al (2017; identify-use-development). SBP has been found to be a distinct parenting construct to autonomy-granting parenting (Waters, 2015b; Loton and Waters, 2017).…”

“…The effects of SBP on children, teenagers and parents have been examined using a range of different methods including survey research, vignette studies, dyadic studies, intervention studies, longitudinal studies, and panel designs in sample sizes ranging from 100 to over 11,300 (Waters, 2015a, b; Jach et al, 2017; Loton and Waters, 2017; Sağkal and Özdemir, 2019). Research on SBP has identified two overarching findings: (1) SBP is a protective factor that is inversely related to anxiety, depression, stress, and negative emotions; and (2) SBP is an enhancing factor that is positively related to life satisfaction, self-confidence, subjective wellbeing, positive emotions, and academic grades.…”

“…Research on SBP has identified two overarching findings: (1) SBP is a protective factor that is inversely related to anxiety, depression, stress, and negative emotions; and (2) SBP is an enhancing factor that is positively related to life satisfaction, self-confidence, subjective wellbeing, positive emotions, and academic grades. The relationship between SBP and youth mental health is mediated by engagement, self-efficacy, persistence and mental toughness (Loton and Waters, 2017; Sağkal and Özdemir, 2019; Waters et al, 2019). Mindset has been found moderate the relationship between SBP and strength use in teens (Jach et al, 2017).…”

Eudaimonic Well-Being and Coping with Stress in University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

“…Some studies among university students have demonstrated the mediating effect of self-efficacy between some psychological resources, such as positive emotions or mindfulness, and the adoption of strategies such as engagement with academic tasks or positive re-evaluation of problems [39,40]. Along these same lines, Loton and Waters [41] observed that high-school students’ perceptions about the degree to which their parents encouraged them to use their personal strengths exerted an indirect positive effect, through self-efficacy, on reducing stress. Therefore, the main contribution of this study is the inclusion of the eudaimonic well-being construct, as it constitutes a more global and representative example of the functioning of positive psychology [14] than those contributed by previous research.…”