Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the relationships among parental care perception (PCP), intolerance of uncertainty (IU), self-esteem, and daily stress responses in middle school students, and to investigate the mediating effects of IU and self-esteem on the association between PCP and daily stress responses. Research design, data and methodology: A descriptive survey design was employed. Participants were 159 middle school students aged 14 to under 16 years recruited from City I, Korea. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires, including the Parental Care Perception scale (10 items), the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale–12 (IUS-12), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Adolescent Daily Stress Response Scale. Data analyses included t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Scheffé post hoc tests, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis. Mediation effects were tested using PROCESS Macro version 4.1. Results: Parental care perception was positively associated with self-esteem and negatively associated with intolerance of uncertainty and daily stress responses. In hierarchical regression analysis, after controlling for gender and parent–child relationship variables, self-esteem emerged as the only significant predictor of daily stress responses. Mediation analyses indicated that intolerance of uncertainty did not mediate the relationship between parental care perception and daily stress responses, whereas self-esteem fully mediated this relationship. Conclusion: These findings suggest that adolescents’ perceived parental care reduces daily stress responses primarily by enhancing self-esteem. This highlights the central role of self-esteem in adolescent stress regulation. Interventions focused on strengthening self-esteem and promoting supportive parent–adolescent interactions may be effective strategies for managing daily stress among adolescents.