Predictors of perfectionism in college students: Parents' perfectionism, parental authority styles, and interactions with parents and students' self-esteem and grade point average

This study explored whether female caregivers' perfectionism, students' descriptions of their male and female primary caregivers' parental authority styles, and students' descriptions of their female primary caregivers' relationship behaviors toward them predict perfectionism in college students and whether students' perfectionism predicts their self-esteem and GPAs. This study focused on both the adaptive (positive) and maladaptive (negative) aspects of perfectionism when examining these variables. The sample included 262 college students (171 females and 91 males), ages 18-30, and 52 mothers or other female primary caregivers. Six questionnaires were administered: (a) the Almost-Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R), (b) the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), (c) the California Inventory for Family Assessment (CIFA), (d) Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), (e) an open-ended questionnaire, and (f) a background information questionnaire. Students' qualitative responses about how meeting high standards and goals were valued and communicated in their families also were explored through three open-ended questions.; College students who reported having high standards for themselves tended to have female caregivers who also reported having high standards for themselves and did not perceive their performance as largely discrepant from the high standards they set. Overall, the adaptive aspects of perfectionism in college students (i.e., high standards and low discrepancy) were predicted by having female caregivers who parented with high authoritativeness and low permissiveness, and the maladaptive aspects of perfectionism (i.e., high standards and high discrepancy) in college students were predicted by having female caregivers who parented with high authoritarianism, coercive and conflict-avoidant/dependent behaviors, and low closeness behaviors. Female caregivers' high coercive and conflict-avoidant/dependent behaviors and low closeness did not predict high standards in students but did predict high discrepancy scores. Also, students' high standards positively predicted their GPA, and surprisingly, students' discrepancy positively predicted their self-esteem. Lastly, students whose primary caregivers actively acknowledged their children's hard work by rewarding them and demonstrating positive emotions toward them tended to possess the adaptive aspects of perfectionism, whereas students whose primary caregivers reacted to their accomplishments with mild praise and communicated the importance of meeting high standards and goals by implying that self-worth was contingent upon success tended to possess the maladaptive aspects of perfectionism.