Parental attachment as a mediator between parental social support and self-esteem as perceived by korean sports middle and high school athletes

This study examined whether parental attachment mediates the relationship between parental social support and self-esteem in Korean middle and high school athletes. 591 sports athletes attending middle and high schools that specialize in sport volunteered. Parental social support and parental attachment had a signifi cant positive eff ect on self-esteem; parental attachment had a greater eff ect on self-esteem. In the structural relationship, direct eff ects of parental social support on self-esteem were weak, but indirect eff ects through parental attachment were strong. Therefore, parental attachment complementally mediated the relationship between parental social support and self-esteem. Metric invariance was supported for groups categorized by sex, region, and school level, confi rming that the model could be applied to various groups.