psychological control and perfectionism
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Perfectionism and psychological control 1
Running Head: PERFECTIONISM AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL
The Intergenerational Transmission of Perfectionism:
Parents Psychological Control as Intervening Variable
Bart Soenens
Department of Psychology, K.U.Leuven, Belgium
Andrew J. Elliot
University of Rochester
Luc Goossens, Maarten Vansteenkiste, Patrick Luyten, Bart Duriez
Department of Psychology, K.U.Leuven, Belgium
Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to Bart Soenens, K.U. Leuven, Department of
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Perfectionism and psychological control 2
The Intergenerational Transmission of Perfectionism:
Parents Psychological Control as Intervening Variable
SUBMISSION DATE : 13/02/04
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Perfectionism and psychological control 3
Abstract
The present study investigated the role of parental perfectionism as a predictor of parental
psychological control, and the role of parents psychological control in the intergenerational
transmission of perfectionism in a sample of female late adolescents and their parents. First, parental
perfectionism significantly predicted parents psychological control, even when controlling for
parents neuroticism. This relationship was found to be stronger for fathers than for mothers.
Second, mothers but not fathers perfectionism significantly predicted their daughters
perfectionism. Third, process analyses showed that the relationship between mothers and daughters
perfectionism is mediated by mothers psychological control, whereas fathers influence their
daughters perfectionism indirectly.
Key Words: Parenting; Psychological control; Perfectionism; Intergenerational transmission
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Perfectionism and psychological control 4
The Intergenerational Transmission of Perfectionism:
Parents Psychological Control as Intervening Variable
Research using a variety of designs and target populations indicates that parental psychological
control has deleterious effects on the developing child and adolescent (Barber & Harmon, 2002). An
important question to be raised, then, is why some parents are more likely than others to engage in
psychologically controlling parenting. In the present study, it is proposed that parents perfectionism
may be an important predictor of their use of psychologically controlling parenting. Moreover, if it is
indeed true that perfectionistic parents tend to use more psychological control, the next question is
whether perfectionistic parents pass their perfectionistic self-representations on to their children
through the use of psychological control. Hence, the present study also examined whether
psychologically controlling parenting plays a role in the transmission of perfectionism from parents
to children.
Psychological control and parental perfectionism
Psychological control refers to a child rearing style used by parents who are primarily focused on
their own psychological needs and emotional problems, and on their authority position in the
relationship with the child (Barber, 1996; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Parents who use psychological
control are thought to pressure their children to comply with their personal standards through the
excessive use of techniques such as guilt-induction and love withdrawal (Barber, 1992; Baumrind,
1991; Steinberg, 1990). Recent research has demonstrated convincingly that parents psychological
control is associated with a host of negative outcomes in children, including depression, low self-
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Perfectionism and psychological control 5
behavior that protects the child against behavioral problems) and parental responsiveness (i.e., the
level of parental warmth or secure attachment to the child; Barber, 1996; Barber, Olsen, & Shagle,
1994; Carron, Weiss, & Harris, 2003; Gray & Steinberg, 1999; Herman, Dornbusch, Herron, &
Herting, 1997; Soucy & Larose, 2000). These findings have been demonstrated in research with
participants from early childhood to late adolescence (Holmbeck et al., 2002; Pettit, Laird, Dodge,
Bates, & Criss, 2001).
Given the negative developmental consequences of parents psychological control, it is clearly
important to study its antecedents. Surprisingly, to date, only a few studies have addressed this
issue (see Barber, Bean, & Erickson, 2002). It has been shown, for instance, that psychological
control is predicted by interparental hostility (Stone, Buehler, & Barber, 2002), parents
perceived legitimacy of parental authority (Smetana & Daddis, 2002), and early externalising
behaviors exhibited by the child (Pettit et al., 2001). None of these studies, however, has
examined differences in intra-individual characteristics of parents as antecedents of their use of
psychological control. Given the fact that parents who use psychological control are primarily
preoccupied with their own needs and standards, Barber et al. (2002) have urged greater attention
to the role of parental resources and parental personality characteristics in research on the
development of psychological control. In the present study, parental perfectionism is investigated
as a predictor of parents use of psychological control.
In recent research, perfectionism is conceptualised as a multidimensional personality trait,
comprising both intrapersonal and interpersonal components (Frost, Marten, Lahart, &
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evaluations (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990; Shafran & Mansell, 2001). These critical
self-evaluations include strong concerns over mistakes in performance, fear of failure, and a
continuous sense of doubt about the quality of one performance (Frost et al., 1990).
Perfectionism has been shown to predict a large number of maladaptive outcomes, such as, for
instance, depression (Frost et al., 1990), marital stress (Hewitt, Flett, & Mikail, 1995), low
academic adjustment (Rice & Mirzadeh, 2000), and eating disorders (Bulik et al., 2003; Goldner,
Cockell, & Srikameswaran, 2002).
An important characteristic of highly perfectionistic individuals, including parents, is their
tendency to be overly concerned about their personal standards and norms, often at the expense of
the development of mature, mutually satisfying relationships with others (Blatt, 1995; Frost et al.,
1990; Shafran & Mansell, 2001). Given this strong focus on the achievement of personal
standards, perfectionistic parents can be expected to be less attuned to their childrens behavior
(Dix, 1991). Moreover, perfectionists typically engage in harsh, negative, and critical self-
evaluations, which results in the feeling of having failed to live up to expectations (Blatt, 1995).
Together with this constant self-scrutiny, they demand that others would also meet their
exaggerated and unrealistic standards (Hewitt & Flett, 1990). Hence, perfectionistic parents may
project the wishes and norms that they feel unable to achieve themselves onto their children,
critically evaluating the behaviors of their children and inducing guilt when norms are not met.
Therefore, self-critical, perfectionistic parents may be vulnerable to engaging in conditionally
approving, psychologically controlling parenting. Based on this reasoning, we posit that parents
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self-criticism, engaged in more explicit commands and negative feedback when confronted with the
autonomous behavior of their child (i.e., the child choosing someone other than their mother as a
discussion partner in a problem-solving situation). Similarly, Grolnick, Gurland, De Courcey, and
Jacob (2002) found that mothers who were placed in an ego-involving, highly achievement-oriented
play situation, behaved more controlling towards their child than mothers placed in a non-ego-
involving condition. Perfectionistic parents, who are known to be strongly ego-involved and oriented
towards the achievement of self-imposed goals (Blatt, 1995), can therefore also be expected to
thwart their childrens attempts at autonomy by using psychological control. Other evidence
supporting our reasoning comes from correlational studies on the interpersonal styles that are
associated with perfectionism. Perfectionism in men has been found to be related to dominant and
hostile interpersonal styles, which include problems with control, manipulation, suspicion, and lack
of empathy (Habke & Flynn, 2002; Hill, Zrull, & Turlington, 1997; Luyten, Corveleyn, & Blatt, in
press). It is clear that these interpersonal problems, when applied to the parent-child context, are
characteristic of psychological control. Perfectionism in women, however, has been found to be
more strongly related to submissive interpersonal traits (Hill et al., 1997), suggesting that the
interpersonal manifestations of perfectionism differ for men and women: whereas perfectionistic
men engage in a domineering interpersonal style, perfectionistic women engage in a more
submissive interpersonal style. It was hypothesized, therefore, that perfectionism may be more
strongly related to paternal psychological control than to maternal psychological control.
In our research, we aimed to examine whether parental perfectionism adds to the prediction of
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been reported between perfectionism and neuroticism (Stumpf & Parker, 2000). Because any
influence of perfectionism on parentspsychological control could be interpreted as a consequence of
parents general level of negative emotionality or neuroticism, it is important to assess whether
parental perfectionism is predictive of parental psychological control over and above the influence of
parental neuroticism.
Moreover, both parents and childrens reports of psychological control were used as indicators of
the parental psychological control construct. This approach allowed us to circumvent the difficulties
associated with the method variance problem (Simons, Whitbeck, Conger, & Chyi-In, 1991;
Schwarz, Barton-Henry, & Pruzinsky, 1985). This problem refers to the fact that when two variables
are measured using reports from a single source, associations between the variables may be inflated
because of the individuals characteristic response tendencies (Watson & Clark, 1984). It was
assumed that by utilizing both parents and childrens reports of psychological control, the common
reality perceived by parents and children or the true level of psychological control could be
estimated more reliably (Simons et al., 1991).
The role of psychological control in the intergenerational transmission of perfectionism
Apart from examining the relation between parental perfectionism and psychological control,
we aimed to assess the role of psychological control in the intergenerational transmission of
perfectionism from parents to their offspring. Several studies have examined whether
perfectionism in parents is associated with perfectionism in their children (Ablard & Parker,
1997; Chang, 2000; Frost, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1991; Vieth & Trull, 1999; Woodside et al.,
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Patterns of intergenerational transmission have been studied in such areas as attachment (van
Ijzendoorn, 1995), substance abuse (Kandel & Wu, 1995), and depression (Goodman & Gotlib,
1999; Jacob & Johnson, 2001; McCarty, McMahon, & Conduct Problems Prevention Research
Group, 2003). In each of these areas, it has been proposed that parenting styles (in addition to
other factors such as role modelling and genetic inheritance) are important mechanisms that
account for the transmission of beliefs, behaviors, and affects from parents to their offspring
(Serbin & Stack, 1998; van Ijzendoorn, 1995; Verschueren, Dossche, Mahieu, Marcoen,
Bakermans-Kranenburg, & van Ijzendoorn, 2003). On the basis of this research, we assume that
the transmission of perfectionism from parents to children is accounted for by the child rearing
style adopted by parents.
Theories about the developmental origins of perfectionism have stressed the role of disrupted
parent-child relationships. Specifically, it has been emphasized by a number of authors that love
withdrawal, guilt-induction, and intrusive parenting are important precursors of childrens self-
criticism and perfectionism (Blatt, 1995; Burns, 1980; Hamachek, 1978). Only recently, however,
has research on the relationship between parenting and perfectionism been undertaken (e.g., Flett,
Hewitt, & Singer, 1995; Kawamura, Frost, & Harmatz, 2002). Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Luyten,
Duriez, and Goossens (2003) showed that parents psychological control is a positive predictor of
perfectionism in adolescents.
In light of these findings, it was hypothesized that psychological control acts as an intervening
variable in the relation between parents and childrens perfectionism. Although this hypothesis
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of fathers love withdrawal. The concept of fear of failure, which refers to individuals tendency
to be motivated by the desire to avoid failure in achievement situations (Elliot & Thrash, in
press), is conceptually related to perfectionism, which also involves high concerns about failing
and not meeting self-imposed standards (Blatt, 1995; Frost et al., 1990). Likewise, parental love
withdrawal may be considered one aspect of the broader construct of psychological control as
evidenced in the parent-child relationship. One limitation of that research was its exclusive
reliance on child self-reports of the parental style variable.
The present study
The present study investigated (a) the role of parental perfectionism as a predictor of parental
psychological control, and (b) the role of parents psychological control in the intergenerational
transmission of perfectionism. These issues were examined in a sample of female late adolescents
and their parents. First, we anticipated that parents perfectionism would be associated with parents
psychological control, particularly in fathers. We also expected that parents perfectionism would
positively predict parents use of psychological control over and above their level of neuroticism.
Second, we aimed to establish the role of psychological control in the relationship between
parents and daughters level of perfectionism. We expected a significant degree of concordance
between mothers and their daughters perfectionism and, based on the research of Elliot and Thrash
(in press), we expected that this concordance would be mediated by mothers psychologically
controlling parenting. In contrast, based on studies by Frost et al. (1991) and Vieth and Trull (1999),
we anticipated that there would be a low or even non-significant level of concordance between
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METHOD
Participants and procedure
Participants were 155 female students enrolled in an educational sciences program at a
Dutch-speaking university in Belgium, and their parents. The student (i.e., daughter) participants
ranged in age from 18 to 24 years (mean = 20 years), and received extra course credit for their
participation. Eighty-six percent of the daughter participants came from intact two-parent
families, 11% had divorced parents, and in 3% of the families one parent was deceased. The
daughter participants were asked to complete a questionnaire themselves, and to distribute a
questionnaire to each of their parents. One hundred and forty-eight mothers and 130 fathers
returned a completed questionnaire; data from both parents were available for 128 families. The
parent participants ranged in age from 41 to 62 years (mean = 48 years). All participants were
Caucasian and came from middle class backgrounds.
Measures
All measures in the present study were translated from English to Dutch, the participants
mother tongue, according to the guidelines of the International Test Commission (Hambleton, 1994).
All items were scored on 5-point Likert-type scales, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly agree). Both parent and daughter participants completed the measures of perfectionism and
parental psychological control; parent participants were also administered a measure of neuroticism.
Perfectionism. The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS; Frost et al., 1990) is a
35-item questionnaire consisting of six subscales tapping different aspects of perfectionism and
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excellence from me), Parental Criticism (4 items, e.g., I never felt like I could meet my parents
standards), and Organization (6 items, e.g., Organization is very important to me). For the
present study, we utilized the three scales assessing intrapersonal perfectionism (Personal
Standards, Concern over Mistakes, and Doubts about Actions; see Frost et al., 1990; 1991). The
two parenting scales and the organization scale were not included in the study because these
scales do not assess the perfectionism construct per se (Frost et al., 1990; Shafran & Mansell,
2001). Cronbachs alpha for the Personal Standards scale was .78, .76, and .81 for mothers,
fathers, and daughters, respectively; Cronbachs alpha for the Concern over Mistakes scale was
.83, .86, and .85 for mothers, fathers and daughters, respectively; and Cronbachs alpha for the
Doubts about Actions scale was .74, .76, and .71 for mothers, fathers and daughters, respectively.
Participants mean scores averaged across these three scales were used to represent
perfectionism. A factor analysis (principal components method) of the items revealed a single
factor with an eigenvalue exceeding unity, both in the parent and daughter samples. The single
factor solution accounted for 68% (mother sample), 60% (father sample) and 59% (daughter
sample) of the variance in the items, respectively, with factor loadings ranging from .63 to .88.
Parental Psychological Control. A 7-item measure, derived from the Childrens Report of
Parents Behavior Inventory (CRPBI; Schaefer, 1965), was used to assess parental psychological
control (e.g., My mother/father is less friendly to me if I dont see things like he/she does). The
daughter participants rated the items for both their mother and their father. The parent
participants rated the items with respect to their own parenting behavior toward their daughter,
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self-reports and .78 for the father self-reports.
Neuroticism. Participants completed the 12-item Neuroticism scale of the authorized
Dutch/Flemish version of the NEO-FFI (Hoekstra, Ormel, & De Fruyt, 1996; e.g., I often feel
tense and nervous). The Dutch/Flemish items correspond to the original English item pool as
closely as possible, and the translated scales have been validated on several Dutch and Flemish
samples. Cronbachs alpha for mothers was .84 and for fathers was .86.
RESULTS
Descriptive statistics and preliminary analyses
Means, standard deviations, and ranges for the study variables are displayed in Table 1.
To examine mean level differences in all study variables among family members, a series of
repeated measures ANOVAs was conducted with family member as the within-subjects variable.
A significant difference was found between mothers and daughters reports of maternal
psychological control (F(1, 147) = 9.90,p < .01; = .063), with mothers describing themselves
as less psychologically controlling than they were perceived to be by their daughters. No similar
difference was found when comparing father and daughter reports of paternal psychological
control (p > .22). Additionally, a significant difference was found between mothers and fathers in
neuroticism (F(1, 127) = 11.09, p < .001; = .080), with mothers scoring higher than fathers.
No other significant differences between family members were found.
The Pearson Product Moment correlations among the study variables are presented in
Table 2. Mothers and daughters reports of psychological control were positively correlated, r=
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Valentiner, 1997; Pettit et al., 2001; Schwartz et al., 1985). The parent and daughter reports of
psychological control were used as indicators of the same underlying construct in all primary
analyses (see Garber et al., 1997; Simons et al., 1991; Whitbeck et al., 1992).
Primary analyses
Structural equation modelling (SEM) with latent variables was used to examine the study
hypotheses. Analysis of the covariance matrices was conducted using LISREL 8.54 (Jreskog &
Srbom, 1996), and solutions were generated on the basis of maximum-likelihood estimation. In
the analyses, perfectionism was represented using parcels rather than individual scale items
(Landis, Beal, & Tesluk, 2000). Parcelling has several advantages in the modelling of latent
variables, relative to the use of individual items. Parcels are likely to have a stronger relationship
to the latent variable, are less likely to be affected by method effects, and are more likely to meet
assumptions of normality (Marsh, Hau, Balla, & Grayson, 1998). Six parcels were created by
randomly splitting the three scales tapping the perfectionism construct (personal standards,
concern over mistakes, and doubts about actions). This form of parcelling enables modelling of
the unreliability within each of the separate scales (Marsh et al., 1998). The error variances of the
parcels that were drawn from the same scale were allowed to correlate, given their similar
wording (Kline, 1998). The same parcelling procedure was used to represent mothers, fathers,
and daughters perfectionism. Parental psychological control was represented using parent and
daughter reports as separate indicators of the underlying latent variable.
In each SEM, the unstandardized loading of the indicator with the strongest loading was
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and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), with values of .08 or below
indicating acceptable fit (Byrne, 2001).
We addressed our hypotheses in three steps. First, we examined the effect of parents
perfectionism on parents psychological control. In this step, we also examined whether parents
perfectionism predicts parents psychological control over and above parents neuroticism.
Second, we examined the direct influence of parents perfectionism on daughters perfectionism
(i.e., intergenerational transmission). Third, we examined the influence of parents perfectionism
on daughters perfectionism through the parental psychological control variable. Each hypothesis
was examined separately for mothers and fathers.
Parents perfectionism and parents psychological control. The model testing the effect of
mothers perfectionism on mothers psychological control provided an excellent fit to the data,
(17, N = 148) = 13.86 (/df = .82; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = .00), and the path from mothers
perfectionism to mothers psychological control was significant, = .33 (p < .01). In order to
examine whether maternal perfectionism predicts psychological control over and above maternal
neuroticism, a second model was tested in which both variables were included as independent
variables. This model showed acceptable fit, (39, N = 148) = 73.75 (/df = 1.89; CFI = .94;
RMSEA = .08), and demonstrated that maternal perfectionism predicted maternal psychological
control, = .26 (p .05), over and above maternal neuroticism, = .36 (p < .01). The model
testing the influence of fathers perfectionism on fathers psychological control also provided a
good fit to the data, (16, N = 130) = 30.69 (/df = 1.92; CFI = .95; RMSEA = .08), and the
2
2
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RMSEA = .09), and showed that paternal perfectionism predicted paternal psychological control,
= .66 (p < .001), over and above paternal neuroticism, = .10 (p = .50).
In the initial models (i.e., without parental neuroticism as an additional predictor),
parental perfectionism explained a substantially larger percentage of variance in paternal
psychological control (R= .51) than in maternal psychological control (R= .11). This confirmed
our hypothesis that the predictive utility of parental perfectionism for parental psychological
control would be stronger for fathers than for mothers.
Parents and daughters perfectionism. The model testing the direct influence of mothers
perfectionism on daughters perfectionism provided an acceptable fit to the data, (48,N = 148)
= 63.07 (/df = 1.31; CFI = .98; RMSEA = .05), and the path from mothers perfectionism to
daughters perfectionism was significant, = .20 (p < .05). The same model for fathers provided
an excellent fit to the data, (47,N = 130) = 41.35 (/df = 0.88; CFI = 1.00; RMSEA = .00); the
path from fathers perfectionism to daughters perfectionism was in the same direction as that for
mothers and daughters, but it did not attain significance, = .12 (p = .30).
Parental psychological control as an intervening variable. The final set of models tested
parental psychological control as an intervening variable in the relationship between parents and
daughters perfectionism. First, we examined whether the direct relationship between mothers
and daughters perfectionism documented in the preceding analysis was mediated by mothers
psychological control. In order to test for mediation, two models were compared, namely a full
mediational model (in which no direct relationship was allowed between mothers and daughters
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psychological control to daughters perfectionism, = .29 (p < .05), were significant. Adding a
path from mothers perfectionism to daughters perfectionism (i.e., a test of the partial
mediational model) did not significantly improve the model fit (diff (1) = 0.12; p = .73). The
AIC criterion (Akaike, 1987), which allows for a direct comparison between models taking
parsimony into account, favoured the full mediation model (AIC = 155.66) over the partial
mediational model (AIC = 157.78). As a further test of mediation, MacKinnon, Lockwood,
Hoffman, West, and Sheets (2002) z' test was computed to examine the significance of the
relationship between mothers perfectionism and daughters perfectionism via maternal
psychological control. Thez' score that was obtained was significant (z'= 1.91, p < .05). See
Figure 1 for a pictorial display of the full mediational model.
Next, although the absence of a direct relationship between fathers and daughters
perfectionism precluded the documentation of mediation, we did examine whether fathers
perfectionism had an indirect influence on perfectionism by influencing fathers psychological
control. This indirect influence model provided an acceptable fit to the data: (69, N = 130) =
89.20 (/df = 1.29; CFI = .96; RMSEA = .05), and both the path from fathers perfectionism to
paternal psychological control, = .73 (p < .001), and the path from fathers psychological
control to daughters perfectionism was significant, = .23 (p .05). The fit of the model could
not be improved by allowing a direct path from fathers to daughters perfectionism (diff (1) =
1.38; p = .24). MacKinnon et al.s (2002) z'test indicated that the indirect influence of fathers
perfectionism on daughters perfectionism through fathers psychological control was significant
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parents psychological control in the intergenerational transmission of perfectionism. First,
considerable support was found for the hypothesis that perfectionistic parents behave toward their
children in a more intrusive, psychologically controlling fashion. Although this relationship was
documented for both fathers and mothers, the utility of parental perfectionism in predicting
psychologically controlling parenting proved to be particularly strong for fathers. Indeed, paternal
perfectionism predicted more than 50% of the variance in the paternal psychological control
construct. The finding that perfectionism is more strongly related to psychologically controlling
parenting for fathers than for mothers is in line with research showing that the interpersonal
manifestations of perfectionism differ for men and women. Whereas perfectionistic men tend to be
domineering and hostile in their relationships with others, perfectionistic women tend to engage in a
more submissive interpersonal style (Habke & Flynn, 2002). Importantly, the relationships observed
herein remained significant when controlling for parental neuroticism, a variable that has been
shown to be predictive of maladaptive parenting in past research (Belsky & Barends, 2002) and
which also shares variability with perfectionism (Stumpf & Parker, 2000).
Second, our findings demonstrate that psychologically controlling parenting plays an important
role as an intervening variable in the transmission of perfectionism from parents to their daughters.
In line with a number of studies that have shown that parent-child similarity in perfectionism occurs
mainly in same-sex dyads (Frost et al., 1991; Vieth & Trull, 1999), we found a significant
association between mothers and daughters perfectionism, but not between fathers and daughters
perfectionism. More importantly, we found evidence for the mediating role of psychological control
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Perfectionism and psychological control 19
fathers and daughters perfectionism, an indirect relationship through paternal psychological control
was documented. Thus, although the father-daughter intergenerational transmission of perfectionism
is clearly more tenuous and less direct than that for mother-daughter pairs, fathers do appear to play
an important role in their daughters development of perfectionistic tendencies.
The findings of this study have important implications for research on parental psychological
control. Although several studies have convincingly demonstrated the negative emotional and
behavioural outcomes associated with psychologically controlling parenting (Barber & Harmon,
2002), few studies addressed the antecedents of this parenting style, and none have attended to
the influence of parents personality. Our findings demonstrate that parents characterized by
excessively high personal standards and by a tendency to be overly concerned with failure are
more likely to engage in contingent approval, guilt-induction, and intrusive parenting. One
possible explanation for this finding is that perfectionistic parents are preoccupied with their self-
imposed standards and norms, to such an extent that they lack the sensitivity and empathic
concern necessary to be appropriately attuned to the needs and wishes of their children (Dix,
1991). This may result in the autonomy-inhibiting and intrusive behaviours that are characteristic
of psychologically controlling parenting. Another possible mechanism linking parents
perfectionism and their use of psychological control may be found in the fragility of
perfectionistic parents self-esteem. Perfectionistic parents may have a contingent sense of self-
worth (Deci & Ryan, 1995; Kernis, 2002), which is characterized by feelings about oneself that
are dependent on the achievement of particular standards or expectations. When parents self-
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and evaluate them in a critical fashion. This tendency, which is referred to by Hewitt and Flett
(1990) as other-oriented perfectionism, may explain why perfectionistic parents project their
own wishes and standards onto their children by means of psychologically controlling parenting.
Future research would do well to examine the role of these variables (i.e., empathy, contingent
self-esteem, and other-oriented perfectionism) and additional constructs as mediators that may
account for the link between parental perfectionism and psychologically controlling parenting.
Our findings are in line with a number of recent studies that have shown that maladaptive
tendencies and characteristics such as depressive symptoms (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999; McCarty
et al., 2003) and fear of failure (Elliot & Trash, in press) are transmitted from parents to their
children through specific qualities of the parent-child relationship (e.g., low social support and
love-withdrawing parenting). Together with the results of this recent research, our study indicates
that socialization in general and intrusive parenting in particular plays an important role in
passing down self-critical, perfectionistic self-representations from one generation to the next.
We should note that our study does not rule out the possibility of genetic transmission of
perfectionism from parent to child, although the fact that we only found parent-child similarity in
mother-child pairs suggests a minimal role for genes. Research explicitly designed to parse
environmental and genetic contributions to perfectionism would be needed to acquire definitive
information on this issue. Regardless, the present research clearly documents an important role of
psychological control in the development of perfectionism in children.
Limitations and directions for future research
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research may find further evidence for Vieth and Trulls (1999) hypothesis that males and
females identify with or pattern themselves after same-sex role models more than opposite-sex
role models. Second, due to the cross-sectional nature of our study, no definite conclusions can be
drawn concerning the direction of causality in the model proposed. For instance, perfectionism in
parents and psychologically controlling parenting may emerge in response to perfectionistic
tendencies displayed by their children, or these variables may influence each other reciprocally
over time. Therefore, it would be useful for future research to examine the model proposed in the
present study using a longitudinal design.
Finally, it would be interesting for future research to examine whether psychological control is
also transmitted across generations. A number of studies have provided evidence for the
intergenerational continuity of parenting dimensions such as emotional warmth (Lundberg,
Perris, Schlette, & Adolfsson, 2000), harsh parenting (Deater-Deckard, Lansford, Dodge, Pettit,
& Bates, 2003; Simons et al., 1991), parental rejection (Whitbeck et al., 1992), and parental
conditional regard (Assor, Roth, & Deci, 2002). It may be hypothesized, therefore, that
psychologically controlling parents are themselves raised in a psychologically controlling family
environment. The psychologically controlling parenting that they presumably experience may
then be transmitted to their children, perhaps in part through their perfectionistic tendencies. In
other words, it is likely that the present research focused on one part of a larger process in which
personality and parenting style both exert their influence across multiple generations. Research
exploring this possibility should be a high priority on the research agenda of personality
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Perfectionism and psychological control 22
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Perfectionism and psychological control 31
Table 1
Means, Standard Deviations, and Range of the Study Variables
Variable Mean Standard
Deviation
Possible
Range
Observed
Range
1. Daughters perfectionism 2.44 0.55 1-5 1.20-4.00
2. Mothers perfectionism 2.39 0.59 1-5 1.00-4.70
3. Fathers perfectionism 2.40 0.52 1-5 1.10-4.20
4. Mothers neuroticism 2.71 0.66 1-5 1.17-4.33
5. Fathers neuroticism 2.44 0.61 1-5 1.08-4.42
6. Daughter-reported maternal psychological control 2.24 0.82 1-5 1.00-4.57
7. Daughter-reported paternal psychological control 2.22 0.78 1-5 1.00-4.438. Mother-reported maternal psychological control 2.00 0.63 1-5 1.00-3.71
9. Father-reported paternal psychological control 2.11 0.61 1-5 1.00-3.72
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Table 2
Correlations among Study Variables
Measure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Daughters perfectionism -
2. Mothers perfectionism .21* -
3. Fathers perfectionism .08 .30*** -
4. Mothers neuroticism .07 .38*** .04 -
5. Fathers neuroticism .03 .11 .45*** -.04 -
6. Daughter-reported maternal psychological control .14 .09 .02 .28*** .22* -
7. Daughter-reported paternal psychological control .28*** .15 .22* .11 .16 .22* -
8. Mother-reported maternal psychological control .06 .29*** .02 .21** .04 .29*** .01 -
9. Father-reported paternal psychological control .13 .22* .45*** .10 .37*** .11 .31*** .09 -
*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
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Figure Captions
Figure 1. Structural model of the relationships between maternal perfectionism, psychological control,
and daughter perfectionism. The coefficients in the figure are standardized estimates.
*p .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
Figure 2. Structural model of the relationships between paternal perfectionism, psychological control,
and daughter perfectionism. The coefficients in the figure are standardized estimates.
*p .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.
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(1)
Doubts 1
Doubts 2
Concerns 1
Concerns 2
Standards 1
Standards 2
Psychological
control
Daughter
perfectionism
Maternal
perfectionism
Standards 1
Doubts 1
Doubts 2
Concerns 1
Concerns 2
Standards 2
Mother
Child.52
.49
.90
.89
.70
.45
.61
.47 .43
.44
.89
.84
.75
.45
.33
.00
.28
.25
.43*** .29*
.00
.30
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(2)
Psychological
control
Daughter
perfectionism
Paternal
perfectionism
Father
Child.48
.45
.78
.70
.59
.32
.81
.73*** .23*
.40 .47
Doubts 1 Doubts 1
.27
.23
.31
.07
Doubts 2
Concerns 1
Doubts 2
Concerns 1
.40
.84
.76Concerns 2 Concerns 2
.79Standards 1 Standards 1
.43.41 .27
Standards 2 Standards 2
top related