Impact of Student Imposter on Self-Esteem: The Moderating Effect of Parental Support

Abstract

In the present context, formal education plays an important role in one's success. However, it seems that even the most educated people do not feel successful within themselves despite their high achievements. This concept is presented as the imposter phenomenon, which was identified about 48 years ago. This imposter phenomenon is strongly associated with psychological variables and mental well-being is a necessary factor for the successful education of individuals. Therefore, this study aims to understand how the imposter phenomenon is related to self-esteem and the effect of support given by the parents on this relationship. To achieve this objective, data were collected from 373 undergraduates through a standard questionnaire. Moreover, we used stratified random sampling method to select the sample. To test the hypotheses, we used linear regression with the aid of Andrew F. Hayes Process for SPSS (v.4.3). The results of this study showed that the student imposter is negatively related to students’ self-esteem. However, as we proposed the moderating effect of parental support on the relationship between students’ imposter and self-esteem was not significant. The findings of the research study contribute to the persistence of existing theories regarding self-esteem and the imposter phenomenon. Further, it supports the university system in developing self-belief strategies among undergraduates. However, focusing only on parental support among the various types of social support is a major limitation of this study.