The Relationship between Childrearing Styles and Perfectionism in Mothers and Emotional and Social Adjustment of Their Eighth-Grade Daughters

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between authoritative، authoritarian and permissive childrearing styles and adaptive (purposefulness، order and organization، efforts for excellence) and maladaptive (interpersonal sensitiveness، setting high standards for others، perceiving pressure from parents) in mothers and level of emotional and social adjustment in female students of eighth grade in high schools in Tehran. A total of 200 mothers with their daughters (living in two municipality districts) were chosen through random sampling. The mothers were asked to complete the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAG; Baumrind، 1991) and the Perfectionism Inventory (Hill، 2004) and the daughters were asked to complete the Adjustment Inventory for School Students (AISS; Sinha and Singh، 1993). Various statistical methods، including frequency distribution، percentage، cumulative percentage، mean، standard deviation، correlation، one-way analysis of variance، t-test and Tukey’s range test، were used for the data analysis. The results showed a significant difference in adjustment scores of adolescents who had mothers with different parenting styles، which indicates that childrearing styles have a crucial role in emotional adjustment of adolescents. However، no significant difference was found in the adolescents’ social adjustments. In terms of the mother’s adaptive or maladaptive perfectionism، no significant difference was found in the students’ scores. The statistical results of the correlation between the students’ emotional adjustment and perfectionism revealed that interpersonal sensitiveness had a significant correlation with the students’ emotional adjustment، where emotional maladjustment increased with interpersonal sensitiveness. Furthermore، a significant difference was found between the mothers’ adaptive or maladaptive perfectionism and the students’ social adjustment، where a correlation existed between the students’ social adjustment in terms of order and organization and the mothers’ perceived pressure.