The relationships between parental conditional regard and adolescents' self-critical and narcissistic perfectionism

•Conditional regard positively predicts self-critical and narcissistic perfectionism•Conditional regard an especially strong predictor of self-critical perfectionism•Results reveal other processes may be more important for narcissistic perfectionism

Studies show that the development of perfectionism in adolescence is associated with psychologically controlling parenting. The current study extends research in this area by examining the relationship between a specific aspect of psychologically controlling parenting, parental conditional regard, and two dimensions of perfectionism, self-critical perfectionism and narcissistic perfectionism. Three hundred and sixteen adolescents (M age = 15.69 years, s = 1.23) completed a standardised questionnaire. Structural equation modelling revealed that both self-critical perfectionism and narcissistic perfectionism were positively predicted by parental conditional regard. Our findings are the first to suggest that parent socialization characterised by guilt inducement and love withdrawal may be common to the development of these two distinct dimensions of perfectionism.