Abstract
Perfectionism is a significant transdiagnostic process related to the development and maintenance of several psychological disorders. The main models of the development of perfectionism focus on early childhood experiences and postulate that parental relation is an important factor for understanding this construct in children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between child and parental perfectionism, seeking to evaluate the empirical support of the Social Learning Model and the Social Expectations Model and children’s perception of parenting styles. The present study included 119 children (51.2% girls, Mage = 11.67 years) and their parents. Data were collected through administration of several self-report measures. The results show a relationship between the majority of the same parent and child perfectionism dimensions, thus providing supportive evidence for the Social Learning Model. Concerning the analysis of the role of gender in the transmission of perfectionism, observed fathers’ perfectionism only relates with the sons’ perfectionism, and mothers’ perfectionism relates with daughters’ perfectionism. Our findings allow for a deeper understanding of the role of the perception of an authoritarian parenting style in the development of maladaptive perfectionism. Mother and fathers’ perceived parenting styles contribute more to daughter than son perfectionism. The results contribute to expanding the understanding of the role of parental factors in the development of perfectionism.
Highlights
Perfectionism is a complex, transdiagnostic, multidimensional personality construct that encompasses both adaptive and maladaptive facets
The literature on the intergenerational transmission of child perfectionism is still inconclusive on the contribution of perfectionist dimensions and different parenting styles in the development of perfectionism in daughters and sons
In order to contribute to the understanding about the development of perfectionism during childhood, this crosssectional study proposed to analyze the association of parental perfectionism and perceived parenting styles with the levels of child perfectionism
Summary
Perfectionism is a complex, transdiagnostic, multidimensional personality construct that encompasses both adaptive and maladaptive facets. Children whose parents have high performance expectations and criticize them when those expectations are not met are more prone to developing perfectionism by internalizing these expectations as well as the associated negative self-evaluation Another model is the Social Learning Model [9], which focuses on the children’s tendency to model perfectionistic behaviors exhibited by their parents. Several studies [10,16,21,23,24,25,26,27,28] support the idea that perfectionism develops more in families with extremely critical parents and that an authoritarian parenting style may lead children to adopt a perfectionist orientation during the course of their lives. We sought to ascertain if the effect of these parental variables is homogeneous or whether it depends on the gender of both the parent and the child
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