Abstract

Currently, plenty of parents view appearance management as a self-discipline essential for the success of their children, leading to increasing spending on high-cost cosmetic medical procedures, and their children start the procedures in upper elementary school. This study examines how rising parental pressure on appearance affects adolescents’ appearance-related self-esteem, considering the mediating role of body shame and the moderating role of mindful self-care. Based on online survey data from 400 South Korean middle and high school students, the findings revealed that parental appearance pressure significantly lowers the appearance self-esteem of their adolescent children, and that this effect is fully mediated by the children’s body shame. Mindful self-care of the adolescent children was found to partially buffer the negative impact of their body shame on appearance-related self-esteem, though it did not significantly influence the entire pathway. These results suggest that appearance-focused parenting may negatively influence adolescents’ identity development, while mindful self-care may offer a partial emotional regulatory resource in mitigating these effects.