The Relationship Between Parenting Style and College Students'

Love Attitude: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem

Boyan Wang

School of Education, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, Guangdong, 519087, China

Keywords: Parenting Styles, Self-Esteem, Love Attitude, Intermediary Role.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of PS on children's love attitude from SE by questionnaire

investigation approach. Using Convenient sampling method to have 101 data in a technician college in

Guangxi, China. The results showed as follows: 1. Parents' emotional warmth of college students' SE has a

significant positive prediction function. 2. The college students’ SE of companionate love attitude has a

significant positive prediction function. 3. There is a significant correlation between friendship love attitude,

passionate love attitude, practical love attitude and parents' emotional warmth. 4. The correlation between

game-playing love attitude and parents' emotional warmth, mother’s over protection is significant. 5.

Possessive love attitude is found to correlate with parents' rejection, parents' over protection and mother’s

emotional warmth. 6. Altruistic love attitude correlates significantly with mother’s rejection, parents' over

protection and parental emotional warmth. 7. Parents' emotional warmth of companionate love attitude has a

significant positive prediction function. 8. The mediating role of SE is not significant. This article offers

empirical evidence to illustrate how family education shapes young people's love attitude.

1 INTRODUCTION

John Broadus Watson said: giving him several babies

and matched environment, he could make them to be

anyone (Watson, 1930). Although the environmental

determinism is too extreme, it emphasizes that the

environment shapes the child in a large part.

According to Watson's S-R theory, the family's

educational environment is a stimulus that must be

present during a child's development, and the child's

personality is shaped as a result of the child's response

to that stimulus. The stimulus of good family

education is necessary for children to have good

behavioural patterns and vice versa. In short, family

education has a vital influence on the shaping of a

child's behaviour and thoughts.

In the study of the self, self-esteem (SE) is an

important variable, and its development is directly

related to the mental health of individuals. SE, as an

important factor affecting individuals, has a vital

impact on the cognition and emotion of college

students.

College students entering college life are

immature in their psychological sex although their

physical sex has matured. The relaxed university

environment provides ample space and time for

young men and women to interact (Yang et al., 2020).

However, unhealthy romantic relationships and

psychological issues can lead to the exacerbation of

conflicts in relationships. Therefore, understanding

college students' romantic issues and exploring the

formation of their love attitudes are crucial topics that

universities must address to help students establish

correct love attitudes.

Therefore, this study aims to explore, from a

psychological perspective, how parenting styles (PS)

influences university students' love attitudes through

empirical research. Based on verifying existing

theories, it helps university students better understand

the deeper reasons for the formation of love attitudes

and raises awareness of the significance of PS and SE.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

PS refers to the attitudes and emotional atmosphere

expressed by parents in their daily behaviors, as well

as the combination of their conscious, intentional

behaviors and their unintentional, unconscious

behaviors, such as changes in tone or emotional

expressions (Ancy & Laurence, 1993). It is generally

440

Wang, B.

The Relationship Between Parenting Style and College Students’ Love Attitude: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem.

DOI: 10.5220/0014123000004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 440-446

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

believed that once formed, the family’s PS is

relatively stable over a certain period.

Different parents and different PS influence the

formation of children's values (Li, 2018). As the

child's first caregivers, parents' PS plays an indelible

role in shaping their children's personality, thoughts,

love attitudes, and criteria for choosing a partner.

Love attitudes are one of the values formed under the

influence of PS (Yang & Chen, 2016). Research has

shown that different PS have a significant impact on

university students' love attitudes and play a

significant predictive role. For example, university

students' practical and friendship love attitudes are

significantly correlated with parental emotional

warmth, and maternal emotional warmth can

significantly predict students' practical and friendship

love attitudes. Parental rejection has a significant

predictive effect on the game-playing, practical, and

friendship love attitudes(Yang & Chen, 2016);

university students' passionate love attitudes are

positively correlated with parental emotional warmth,

game-playing love attitudes are negatively correlated

with maternal emotional warmth, friendship love

attitudes are negatively correlated with maternal

rejection, and university students' practical love

attitudes are positively correlated with parental

emotional warmth but negatively correlated with

parental rejection. Possessive love attitudes are

positively correlated with paternal over protection

(Luo & Peng, 2012).

From the above, it can be seen that PS has a

significant impact on children's views about

relationships, making it a meaningful area of study.

SE is an individual's positive emotional

experience of themselves in social practice (Zhang,

2002). Cooley's mirror-self-theory suggests that self-

evaluation is influenced by others' attitudes. Since

parents are very important figures in a child's life,

their attitudes toward their children significantly

affect their self-awareness. In other words, PS can

affect the SE level of children (Liu et al., 2024). It is

generally believed that positive parenting can

positively predict higher SE, while negative parenting

has the opposite effect.

Love attitude, also known as love philosophy, is a

multifaceted attitude toward romantic relationships,

and it directly influences the establishment and

development of romantic relationships (Rubin, 1970).

Love attitude is an important component of life

philosophy and reflects a person's basic views and

attitudes toward love (Li, 2013). Since Hendrick's

love attitude scale was introduced, many scholars

have used it to measure love attitudes, with some

studies involving SE. As a mediating personality

variable, SE plays an important role in emotional,

motivational, and cognitive processes. Many

researchers have also found that SE is related to love

attitudes, but the conclusions are inconsistent. For

instance, university students' SE levels have a certain

degree of influence on their friendship love,

possessive love, and self-sacrificing love attitudes

(Yu, 2018). The higher the SE, the more likely

students are to adopt a possessive love attitude, while

lower SE tends to lead to a friendship or practical love

attitude (Zhao et al., 2016). SE shows a significant

positive correlation with all six dimensions of love

attitude (Cao, 2011).

Existing research indicates that PS, SE, and love

attitude formation are related. PS influences the

formation of love attitudes and plays a significant role

in predicting certain types of love attitudes. PS also

affects SE levels, with different PS impacting

university students' SE. SE significantly predicts

certain love attitudes, so SE is a suitable mediating

variable.

However, the majority of studies focus on

students in undergraduate universities, and research

on vocational college students is lacking.

Furthermore, few studies have examined the

relationship among PS, SE, and love attitudes. This

study hopes to clarify the relationship among these

three factors by focusing on vocational college

students.

3 METHOD

3.1 Research Hypothesis

This study mainly includes four research hypotheses:

(1) PS is related to the formation of university

students' love attitudes.

(2) PS is related to university students' SE levels.

(3) SE levels are related to the formation of

university students' love attitudes.

(4) SE levels mediate the relationship between PS

and love attitudes.

3.2 Participants

Convenience sampling was used, and 160

questionnaires were distributed to students at a

vocational school in Guangxi through SoJump APP.

After eliminating invalid questionnaires using

standard answer-trap questions, 101 valid responses

were obtained, with an effective response rate of

63.1%.

The Relationship Between Parenting Style and College Students’ Love Attitude: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem

441

3.3 Measures

3.3.1 Demographic Profile

Researcher designed a short scale to statistics

participants’ sex, age, degree course, the type of

origin, whether or not are an only child, parental

education level, household financial situation.

3.3.2 Short-Egna Minnen av Barndoms

Uppfostran-Chinese

This study used the Chinese version of the

"Simplified PS Questionnaire" revised by Jiang in

2010. It includes two versions: one for fathers and one

for mothers. Each version consists of 21 items across

three core dimensions: rejection, emotional warmth,

and over protection. The Cronbach's α coefficient

for the three dimensions of PS is between 0.74 and

0.84, demonstrating good reliability.

3.3.3 Love Attitude Scale

The study used the Love Attitude Scale, revised by

Cao based on Hendrick’s original scale in 2007. The

scale consists of 42 items and includes six

dimensions: passionate, game-playing, friendship,

practical, possessive, and altruistic love attitudes.

Each dimension includes 7 items. The participants

were asked to rate their agreement with each

statement on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5

(strongly agree). Research has shown that this scale

has good reliability and validity and is suitable for

measuring the love attitudes of Chinese students.

3.3.4 SE Scale

The Rosenberg SE Scale, developed in 1965 and

translated into Chinese by Wang in 1999, was used.

The scale uses a four-point scoring method, where 1

indicates "very true," and 4 indicates "very untrue,"

with a total of 10 items. Higher scores indicate higher

SE. The theoretical cut-off score for SE levels is 25.

The internal consistency α coefficient is 0.804, and

the scale has good reliability.

3.4 Statistical Method

After collecting the questionnaires, invalid ones were

eliminated, and the data were analysed using SPSS

23.0. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis

were performed on the PS and love attitude variables.

The predictive effect of PS and SE on love attitudes,

as well as the mediating effect of SE, were tested

using multiple linear regression and mediation effect

analysis.

4 RESULTS

4.1 Relationship Between PS and SE

Table 1. Correlation Between Father's Emotional Warmth

and SE.

SE father’s emotional

warmth

SE Correlation

Coefficient

1 .442

. .000

As shown in Table 1, the Spearman correlation

coefficient between father's emotional warmth and

SE is 0.442, with significance less than 0.05,

indicating a significant positive correlation between

father's emotional warmth and SE.

Table 2. Regression Coefficients in the Model.

unstandardized

coefficients

standardiz

coefficien

Model B standa

erro

Beta t Sig

(Consta

nt)

18.69

1.508 12.39

.00

father’s

emotion

warmth

.539 .098 .498 5.498 .00

As shown in Tables 2, higher father's emotional

warmth is positively associated with higher SE in

university students.

Table 3. Correlation Between Mother's Emotional Warmth

and SE.

SE mother’s emotional

warmth

SE Correlation

Coefficient

1 .463

. .000

As shown in Table 3, the Spearman correlation

coefficient between mother's emotional warmth and

SE is 0.463, indicating a significant positive

correlation.

APMM 2025 - International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management

442

Table 4. Regression Analysis Between Mother's Emotional

Warmth and SE.

unstandardized

coefficients

standardiz

coefficient

Model B standar

d erro

Beta t Sig

(Constan

19.42

1.461 13.29

.00

mother’s

emotiona

l warmth

.406 .078 .462 5.179 .00

As shown in Tables 4, higher mother's emotional

warmth is positively associated with higher SE in

university students.

4.2 Relationship Between PS and SE

Table 5. Correlation Between SE and Friendship Love

Attitude.

SE Friendship Love

Attitude

SE Correlation

Coefficient

1 .202

. .042

As shown in Table 5, the Spearman correlation

coefficient between SE and friendship love attitude is

0.202, with a significance of 0.042, which is less than

0.05. This indicates a significant positive correlation

between SE and friendship love attitude.

Table 6. Regression Analysis Between SE and Friendship

Love Attitude.

unstandardized

coefficients

standardize

coefficient

Model B standar

d erro

Beta t Sig.

(Constant

)

11.88

3.363 3.53

.00

SE .273 .124 .216 2.19

.03

As shown in Tables 6, higher SE is positively

associated with higher friendship love attitude in

university students.

4.3 Relationship Between PS and Love

Attitude

Table 7. Correlation Between PS and Love Attitudes.

passi

onat

pla

yin

frien

dshi

prac

tical

poss

essiv

altr

uisti

fathe

r’s

rejec

tion

Corre

lation

Coeff

icient

.213

. .032

fathe

r’s

emot

ional

war

mth

Corre

lation

Coeff

icient

.318 .20

.387 .334 .263

Sig. .001 .03

.000 .001 .008

fathe

r’s

over

prote

ction

Corre

lation

Coeff

icient

.219 .197

. .028 .048

moth

er’s

rejec

tion

Corre

lation

Coeff

icient

.288 .208

Sig. .003 .037

moth

er’s

emot

ional

war

mth

Corre

lation

Coeff

icient

.335 .24

.444 .443 .223 .279

Sig. .001 .01

.000 .000 .025 .005

moth

er’s

over

prote

ction

Corre

lation

Coeff

icient

.20

.363 .233

Sig.s .04

.000 .019

As shown in Table 7, parental emotional warmth,

rejection, and over protection are significantly

correlated with various types of love attitudes.

Specifically, romantic, playful, friendship, and

possessive love attitudes are positively correlated

with parental emotional warmth.

The Relationship Between Parenting Style and College Students’ Love Attitude: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem

443

Table 8. Regression Analysis Between Father's Emotional

Warmth and Friendship Love Attitude.

unstandardized

coefficients

standardize

coefficient

Model B standar

d erro

Beta t Sig.

(Constant

)

11.15

2.006 5.56

.00

father’s

emotiona

l warmth

.547 .130 .389 4.19

.00

As shown in Tables 8, higher father's

emotional warmth is positively associated with

higher friendship love attitude in university

students.

Table 9. Regression Analysis Between Mother's Emotional

Warmth and Friendship.

unstandardized

coefficients

standardize

coefficient

Model B standar

d erro

Beta t Sig.

(Constant

)

10.80

1.882 5.74

.00

mother’s

emotiona

l warmth

.474 .101 .427 4.70

.00

As shown in Tables 9, higher mother's emotional

warmth is positively associated with higher

friendship love attitude in university students.

4.4 Mediating Effect of SE

Table 10. Mediating Effect of SE in the Relationship

Between Father's Emotional Warmth and Friendship Love

Attitude.

unstandardized

coefficients

standardize

coefficient

Model B standar

d erro

Beta t Sig.

(Constant

)

father’s

emotiona

l warmth

11.15

.547

2.2006

.130

.398

5.56

.419

.00

(Constant

)

10.30

3.220 3.20

.00

father’s

emotiona

l warmth

.523 .150 .371 3.49

.00

SE .046 .134 .036 .340 .73

Table 11. Mediating Effect of SE in the Relationship

Between Mother's Emotional Warmth and Friendship Love

Attitude.

unstandardized

coefficients

standardiz

coefficien

Model B standa

erro

Beta t Sig

(Consta

nt)

mother’

emotion

warmth

14.01

.336

1.341

.073

.342

10.44

4.574

.00

(Consta

nt)

12.41

2.522 4.924 .00

mother’

emotion

warmth

.310 .081 .316 3.814 .00

SE .077 .104 .062 .746 .45

As shown in Tables 10 and 11, the mediation

effect of SE between parental emotional warmth and

love attitude is not significant.

5 DISCUSSION

5.1 Analysis of the Relationship

Between PS, SE, and Love

Attitudes

The results show that parental emotional warmth is

significantly positively correlated with university

students' SE and can positively predict their SE levels.

This may be because parental emotional warmth

provides more care and guidance to university

students, and a good parent-child relationship is an

important condition for children to develop high SE.

Therefore, university students raised with

emotionally warm PS are more likely to have higher

SE than others. Liu's research, based on university

student samples, also found a similar relationship

between PS and SE, which aligns with the results.

Hence, the relationship between PS and SE should be

given attention in society, and the significance of PS

and SE should be recognized.

The results also show that SE is positively

correlated with friendship love attitudes, and higher

SE can positively predict university students'

APMM 2025 - International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management

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friendship love attitudes. The main feature of

friendship love attitudes is a gradual and peaceful

emotional development. Typically, the relationship

starts as a friendship and slowly evolves into love.

This may be because individuals with higher SE have

a stronger sense of self-efficacy, and when choosing

a partner, they prefer to interact with someone who is

more capable or attractive. Before a romantic

relationship develops, observing and interacting as

friends provides a necessary foundation. Researches

by Cao and Yu both showed that SE positively had

predicted friendship love attitudes, which is

consistent with the findings of this study.

The results also show that parental emotional

warmth positively predicts university students'

friendship love attitudes. This suggests that students

raised by emotionally warm parents are more likely

to adopt friendship attitudes toward love and

relationships. The findings are in line with Yang's

research. The attitudes of university students toward

family, friendship, and love are interconnected and

influence each other. PS is one of the key factors in

the formation of early interpersonal relationships, and

it has a great influence on students' values regarding

friendship. Thus, their attitudes toward love are

influenced by their thoughts on friendship and the

emotional expressions shown by their parents while

raising them. Therefore, university students raised in

emotionally warm families are more likely to view

both friendship and love similarly, both emphasizing

mutual understanding and warmth. These students are

more likely to develop romantic relationships with

their close friends.

6 CONCLUSION

The results indicate that positive and proactive PS

contributes to higher SE and moderate love attitudes

in university students. Specifically, father's emotional

warmth has a significant positive predictive effect on

university students' SE levels, meaning that higher

father’s emotional warmth tends to lead to higher SE.

Similarly, maternal emotional warmth has a

significant positive predictive effect on university

students' SE levels, indicating that higher maternal

emotional warmth tends to lead to higher SE.

Moreover, university students' high SE significantly

positively predicts their friendship love attitudes,

meaning that higher SE leads to a higher tendency

toward friendship love attitudes. Additionally, both

father’s and mother’s emotional warmth significantly

positively predict university students' friendship love

attitudes. Finally, the mediating effect of SE is not

significant.

Due to the fact that this study’s sample was

concentrated in a vocational school, the level of

seriousness in completing the surveys was lower

compared to undergraduate university students,

leading to a relatively low valid response rate. Future

research can consider using more trap questions in

questionnaires and trying to use concise and fewer

titles to improve response rates.

Research on the relationship between PS and love

attitudes is abundant, but the conclusions are not

uniform, and no authoritative study has conclusively

defined the relationship. Future research could

explore additional factors, such as parental marriage

quality, subjective well-being, anxiety, and

depression, to provide authoritative conclusions

regarding the relationship between PS and love

attitudes.

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