Research Paper The International Journal of Indian Psychology ISSN 2348-5396 (Online) | ISSN: 2349-3429 (Print) Volume 8, Issue 4, Oct- Dec, 2020 DIP: 18.01.009/20200804, DOI: 10.25215/0804.009 http://www.ijip.in © 2020, Jain A. & Boora S.; licensee IJIP. This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Emotional autonomy and self esteem in teenagers: in association with authoritative parenting style Aastha Jain 1 *, Dr. Sarika Boora 2 ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine whether the relationship between teenager’s emotional autonomy and their self esteem is mediated by parenting style. The sample of the study consisted of 50 adolescent boys and 50 adolescent girls who were selected from Delhi through convenience sampling. All the participants were aged between 14 to 19 years old. It was made sure that all the participants were living with both their parents. The following tools were used in this study; Emotional Autonomy Scale - Steinberg And Silverberg (1986), "Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale" developed by Rosenberg (1965) and “Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ)” - Bury (1991). Pearson’s Product Moment correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data. The present study concluded that significant relationship exists between authoritative parenting style and self esteem and the emotional autonomy of the adolescents. Keywords: Teenagers, emotional autonomy, parenting style, Self-Esteem dolescence is dictated by internal and external changes which lead to maturity and development. It is important that the adolescents master these tasks for a healthy psychosocial functioning. Developing autonomy is crucial for reaching adulthood. A healthy sense of self is promoted once an individual is able to function with autonomy, and therefore he develops in other areas of life as well. Autonomy is a psychosocial issue which effects throughout the life, though it is considered to be important during the teenage years, because of the biological causes that happen in puberty, advanced cognition emerge and the individual adapts new roles of the society. The quality of a parent-adolescent relationship plays a major role in the development of emotional autonomy of a teenager. The parent child relationship is transformed as the adolescents develop “responsible autonomy” from the parents (Steinberg, 1990). Adolescence begins with the adolescents “attainment of separation and independence from the parents” an d ends with a “return to the parents in a new relationship based upon equality”. The parents replace their childish image of the child with a new, more matured image which is also complicated and realistic in nature. 1 Psychologist at Cankids…Kidscan (NGO), Masters in Psychology (NET Qualified), India 2 Director & Psychologist, Sambhrti- Centre for Mental Health, Delhi, India *Responding Author Received: September 15, 2020; Revision Received: October 4, 2020; Accepted: October 20, 2020 A