Perfectionism and relationship quality in parent-adolescent dyads

Perfectionism can be both a result of difficulties in the parent–adolescent relationships and a source of interpersonal problems according to the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model. Applying this in the family context, the present study investigates the longitudinal interplay between relationship quality and perfectionism characteristics in parent-adolescent dyads. The study examined a sample ( N = 443) of adolescents (m age at Time 1 = 15.6 years old, 69.3% cisgender women) and their parents (m age at Time 1 = 43.8 years, 84.3% cisgender women) using an actor-partner model in a cross-lagged longitudinal design with three waves. Results showed that adolescents’ perceptions of relationship quality with their mother predicted significant relative changes in adolescents’ perfectionistic concerns. Furthermore, adolescents’ perceptions of relationship quality with both their parents predicted changes in parental perfectionistic strivings. However, parental perfectionistic strivings predicted decreases only in adolescents’ perceptions of relationship quality with their father. These results underscore the critical role of adolescents’ views on the parent-child relationship in shaping both their own and their parents’ perfectionism, as well as potential differences between mother and father relationship quality dynamics with perfectionism.