Maternal caregiving, prosocial behavior, and self‐esteem in middle childhood

This study assessed maternal caregiving quality and children's prosocial behavior as related to changes in child self‐esteem from early childhood across the transition into formal schooling. Although a robust literature indicates that sensitive caregiving promotes self‐esteem, less is known about the potential contribution of children's positive social behavior to enhanced self‐esteem. This study drew on a diverse sample of young children (N = 250; Mage = 4.085, SD = .249; 50% female, 50% male; 46% Latinx) to evaluate prospective relations between an observational assessment of sensitive maternal caregiving at the age of 4 and child reports of self‐esteem at the age of 8 as mediated by teacher‐reports of children's prosocial behavior at the age of 6. Analyses revealed a significant indirect pathway whereby sensitive maternal caregiving promoted children's self‐esteem via children's prosocial behavior. These findings highlight both sensitive caregiving and children's prosocial behavior as promising points of intervention to bolster children's self‐esteem.