The influence of parenting styles on the development of perfectionism in young adults

Perfectionism is an evident, although complex characteristic, which may influence young adults’ psychological development. The present cross-sectional, observational and quantitative nature study aims at investigating the influence of parenting styles in people’s perfectionist traits. Data were collected by means of APS-R, PBI and PAQ scales with 102 undergraduate students aged 18 to 24 years old. In order to analyze the data, descriptive and inferential statistics were used so that it could be possible to carry out correlation and regression analysis. Results of the analysis have shown moderate correlation between variables related to the maladaptative perfectionism and authoritative parenting style, as well as the prevalence of authoritative parenting style towards their young adult daughter, as well as how mothers’s background knowledge influences the use of authoritative parenting practices. Nevertheless, maladaptative perfectionism is better related to authoritative parenting style than to adaptive perfectionism.