Please help with this questiona. What kind of variable is self esteemb. If the research is sampled from the same church and the church leader has strict views about divorce, what variable would church affiliation be?

A researcher wants to investigate the effects of three different coping sty (avoidant, compromise, and competition) on relationship satisfaction. Previous literature indicates that self-esteem also impacts relationship satisfaction, so the researcher decides to include self-esteem in the mode as well