Testing Cross-Lagged Associations between Conditional Parental Regard and Impostorism among Students from Elementary to Secondary School

Abstract

The objective of this longitudinal study was to examine the direction of the relationship between the perception of parental conditional support and the feeling of imposture. 504 students (249 girls) aged 10 -11 at the start of the study answered questionnaires on their perception of conditional parental support and their feeling of imposture over a period of five consecutive years. Using structural equation modeling, the results of cross-lagged analyzes with overlapping stability paths of each variable showed that the model where the perception of conditional support predicted the presence of the feeling of imposture the following year was the most parsimonious and the one that also best fit the data. There was no evidence for the reverse: impostorism never predicted changes in perception of conditional parental regard. The discussion focuses on the mechanisms likely involved in children internalization of parental expectations as standards that lead them to feel like an impostor. The negative impact of imposorism on the well-being and future of children increases the importance of making parents aware of the avoidance of practices leading their child to perceive that their love and acceptance are based on their accomplishments rather than on their personal qualities.