Nature or Nurture?

The present study aimed to explore the relevance of personality and parenting styles to self-esteem and academic performance among undergraduate students in Hong Kong. Specifically the relative strengths of conscientiousness extraversion neuroticism authoritative parenting and authoritarian parenting in predicting self-esteem and academic performance respectively were examined. Gender differences among variables were also investigated. The results indicated that extraversion neuroticism and authoritative parenting were significant predictors of self-esteem while conscientiousness was a significant predictor of academic performance. Only authoritarian parenting was not found to be a significant predictor of either self-esteem or academic performance. Moreover multiple gender differences were identified for variables predicting self-esteem and variables predicting academic performance. Results were discussed as well as implications for parents and educators and future directions in research.