Author(s)

Sabry M. Abd-El-Fattah, Hessa Abdulrahman Fakhroo

Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

The present study investigated the relationship among paternal psychological control and adolescents’ perfectionism and self-esteem. The sample included 136 father-adolescent pairings. Adolescents responded to a questionnaire tapping three aspects of perfectionism: self-oriented perfectionism, sociallyprescribed perfectionism, and concern over mistakes. Their fathers completed a questionnaire assessing their psychological control along three dimensions: direct expectations, controlling expectations, and effort approval. A path modeling showed that direct expectations and effort approval positively predicted self-oriented perfectionism. Controlling expectations negatively predicted self-oriented perfectionism and self-esteem and positively predicted socially-prescribed perfectionism. Socially-prescribed perfectionism positively predicted concern over mistakes and negatively predicted self-esteem. Adolescents’ socially-prescribed perfectionism mediated the relationship between fathers’ controlling expectations and adolescents’ self-esteem. Effort approval moderated the relationship between direct expectations and self-oriented perfectionism.

Psychological Control; Perfectionism; Self-Esteem, Path Analysis

M. Abd-El-Fattah, S. & Abdulrahman Fakhroo, H. (2012). The Relationship among Paternal Psychological Control and Adolescents’ Perfectionism and Self-Esteem: A Partial Least Squares Path Analysis. Psychology, 3, 428-439. doi: 10.4236/psych.2012.35061.