The Relationship among Paternal Psychological Control and Adolescents’ Perfectionism and Self-Esteem: A Partial Least Squares Path Analysis

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship among paternal psychological control and adolescents' perfectionism and self-esteem. The sample included 136 father-adolescent pairings. Adolescents re-sponded to a questionnaire tapping three aspects of perfectionism: self-oriented perfectionism, socially-prescribed perfectionism, and concern over mistakes. Their fathers completed a questionnaire assessing their psychological control along three dimensions: direct expectations, controlling expectations, and ef-fort approval. A path modeling showed that direct expectations and effort approval positively predicted self-oriented perfectionism. Controlling expectations negatively predicted self-oriented perfectionism and self-esteem and positively predicted socially-prescribed perfectionism. Socially-prescribed perfectionism positively predicted concern over mistakes and negatively predicted self-esteem. Adolescents' socially-prescribed perfectionism mediated the relationship between fathers' controlling expectations and adoles-cents' self-esteem. Effort approval moderated the relationship between direct expectations and self-ori-ented perfectionism.