Familial Affective Responsiveness Mediates the Relations Between Parental Perfectionistic Self-Presentation and Adolescent Psychological Maladjustment

Abstract

Parental perfectionism (e.g., perfectionistic concerns) has been strongly implicated in adolescent psychological maladjustment such as depression and anxiety. However, little is known about the links between parental perfectionistic self-presentation (i.e., the interpersonal expressions of perfectionism) and adolescent psychological outcomes. According to the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model (Hewitt et al., 2017), people with elevated perfectionistic self-presentation engage in social behaviors characterized by a lack of emotional sensitivity or responsiveness, which then increases one’s risk of social disconnection and psychological maladjustment. This theory has seldom been tested in the context of parent-adolescent and family relationships. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to explore the mediational role of familial affective responsiveness in the associations between parental perfectionistic self-presentation and adolescent psychological outcomes. Participants were 58 dyads of clinically depressed adolescents (Mage = 15.52; 74.5% female) and their primary caregivers (Mage = 46.08; 51 mothers). Path analysis indicated that the overall model fit the data well. Congruent with the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model, analyses showed that adolescent but not parent-reported family dysfunction in affective responsiveness mediated the relations between parental perfectionistic self-presentation and adolescent depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and alcohol-related problems, even after controlling for parental depression. Taken together, our findings provide new information for the role of parental perfectionistic self-presentation in adolescent psychological maladjustment and highlight parental perfectionistic self-presentation as a potential target for therapeutic intervention in adolescent depression.