Parental Control, Parentification, and Self-Evaluative Mechanisms in Work Addiction and Impostor Phenomenon

Early family experiences may represent important developmental factors of work addiction (WA); however, their psychological pathways remain insufficiently understood. This study examined whether retrospectively reported parentification and controlling parental styles are associated with WA and the impostor phenomenon (IP) through self-esteem and perfectionism. Data were collected from a sample of adults ( N = 8,433; 49.9% women; M_age = 42.86 years, SD = 12.13) who completed standardized self-report measures of retrospectively reported childhood parentification and parental control, and measures of self-esteem, perfectionism, WA, and IP. Results indicated that parentification and restrictive parental control predicted lower self-esteem and higher perfectionism, which in turn were associated with higher WA and IP. Perfectionism showed stronger indirect effects on WA, whereas self-esteem played a larger role in IP. The model explained 24.0% of the variance in WA and 55.6% in IP. Findings highlight the relevance of early caregiving environments in maladaptive self-evaluative processes underlying WA.