Exploring family origins of perfectionism: The impact of interparental conflict and parenting behaviors

• Interparental conflict predicted parental psychological control and autonomy support.
• Psychological control was associated with all perfectionism dimensions except for organization.
• Autonomy support was associated with personal standard and organization.
• Both psychological control and autonomy support were found as mediators.
• Interparental conflict predicted doubts about action when parenting were considered.

The present study explored family origins of perfectionism among 382 college students aged 18–25 with an online survey (81.2% females, 89.3% Caucasians). We examined parental psychological control and autonomy support as a mechanism between interparental conflict and perfectionism dimensions. With structural equation modeling, results showed that psychological control was associated with personal standard, concern over mistakes and doubts about action, whereas autonomy support was associated with personal standard and organization. Interparental conflict had a direct effect on doubts about action when parenting was considered. In addition, interparental conflict had indirect effects on personal standard through psychological control and autonomy support, and on concern over mistakes and doubts about action through psychological control. The findings of the study identified interparental conflict as an important contributor to the development of perfectionism, and parenting behaviors as explanatory processes of the formation. Implications of the study and future directions of research were discussed.