Family APGAR and self-esteem as mediators between parenting styles and life satisfaction among medical undergraduates

Objective To explore the relationships among parenting styles,family APGAR,self-esteem,and life satisfaction in medical undergraduates,and to provide the reference for promoting students' mental health.Methods A total of 2 473 medical undergraduate randomly selected as subjects were surveyed with short-Egna Minnen Betraffende Upfostran-Chinese,Family APGAR Index,Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and Satisfaction with Life Scale.Results Pearson correlation analysis showed that parenting styles,family APGAR,self-esteem,and life satisfaction were significantly associated with each other(r=0.263-0.579,P<0.05).Fathers' emotional rejection,parental over-protection were negatively correlated with family APGAR,self-esteem and life satisfaction(r=-0.094--0.342,P<0.05).The regression test indicated that fathers' emotional warmth and overprotection and mothers' emotional warmth and overprotection significantly affected life satisfaction of students (β =0.261,-0.091,0.280,-0.068,P<0.01).Multiple mediation modeling deemed that parenting styles could not exert effect on students' life satisfaction directly(P>0.05),but significantly contribute to life satisfaction indirectly by both separate mediate path (mediation effect 49.1%-58.5%,27.9%-35.3%) and chained mediate path (mediation effect 15.6%-19.0%) of family APGAR and self-esteem (P<0.05).Conclusion Family APGAR and self-esteem have exerted a mediating effect on the relationship between parenting styles and life satisfaction.