Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

When Parents Seek Perfection: Implications for Psychological Functioning Among Teens at High-Achieving Schools

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Although often considered to be at low risk for negative outcomes, there is replicated evidence that youth attending high-achieving schools experience clinically significant mental health problems that exceed national norms. However, relatively little is known about family correlates of adolescent socio-emotional development, including parental criticism and expectations. Using a sample of high school students (N = 710, mean age = 16.7 years, 45% female) drawn from a high-achieving school in a largely affluent area, this study investigated concurrent associations between adolescent perceptions of maternal and paternal criticism and expectations with their self-reported internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. To discern configurations of family environment based on separate ratings of maternal and paternal criticism and expectations, we employed person-centered, latent profile analysis. An empirically distinct class emerged consisting of families with elevated maternal and paternal criticism and expectations; this class concurrently reported the highest levels of internalizing and externalizing problems. These findings highlight the importance of parent-child relationships for offspring well-being and suggest that paternal achievement expectations may be particularly relevant among high-achieving youth. We consider these findings within the larger context of family factors and adolescent development among youth in high-achieving contexts, including the significant need to consider father-offspring relationship factors.

Highlights

  • Youth from high-achieving schools are at elevated risk for mental health problems.

  • Parent criticism and expectations were correlated with youth psychopathology.

  • Father-child relationships were especially salient for youth with the highest risk.

  • Parent influences are crucial for assessing risk among achievement-oriented youth.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Achenbach, T. M., & Rescorla, L. A. (2001). Manual for the ASEBA school‐age forms & profiles: An integrated system of multi‐informant assessment. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, & Families.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. (2014). Auxiliary variables in mixture modeling: Three-step approaches using M plus. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 21(3), 329–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barker, E. D., Copeland, W., Maughan, B., Jaffee, S. R., & Uher, R. (2012). Relative impact of maternal depression and associated risk factors on offspring psychopathology. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 200(2), 124–129.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, G. M., Hoffman, J. H., Welte, J. W., Farrell, M. P., & Dintcheff, B. A. (2006). Effects of parental monitoring and peer deviance on substance use and delinquency. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68(4), 1084–1104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumrind, D. (1991). Effective parenting during the early adolescent transition. Family Transitions, 2(1), 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, J. H., Block, J., & Morrison, A. (1981). Parental agreement- disagreement on child-rearing orientations and gender-related personality correlates in children. Child Development, 52, 965–974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckholdt, K. E., Parra, G. R., & Jobe-Shields, L. (2014). Intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation through parental invalidation of emotions: implications for adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23(2), 324–332.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cabrera, N. J., Fitzgerald, H. E., Bradley, R. H., & Roggman, L. (2014). The ecology of father‐child relationships: an expanded model. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 6(4), 336–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chronis, A. M., Lahey, B. B., Pelham, Jr, W. E., Williams, S. H., Baumann, B. L., Kipp, H., & Rathouz, P. J. (2007). Maternal depression and early positive parenting predict future conduct problems in young children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Developmental Psychology, 43(1), 70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ciciolla, L., Curlee, A. S., Karageorge, J., & Luthar, S. S. (2017). When mothers and fathers are seen as disproportionately valuing achievements: implications for adjustment among upper middle class youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(5), 1057–1075.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, L. C., & Kearney, C. A. (2014). Parent perfectionism and psychopathology symptoms and child perfectionism. Personality and Individual Differences, 70, 1–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coren, S. A., & Luthar, S. S. (2014). Pursuing perfection: Distress and interpersonal functioning among adolescent boys in single‐sex and co‐educational independent schools. Psychology in the Schools, 51(9), 931–946.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dogan, S. J., Conger, R. D., Kim, K. J., & Masyn, K. E. (2007). Cognitive and parenting pathways in the transmission of antisocial behavior from parents to adolescents. Child Development, 78(1), 335–349.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ebbert, A. M., Infurna, F. J., & Luthar, S. S. (2019). Mapping developmental changes in perceived parent–adolescent relationship quality throughout middle school and high school. Development and Psychopathology, 31(4), 1541–1556.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ebbert, A. M., Kumar, N. L., & Luthar, S. S. (2019). Complexities in adjustment patterns among the “best and the brightest”: risk and resilience in the context of high achieving schools. Research in Human Development, 16(1), 21–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (2014). A proposed framework for preventing perfectionism and promoting resilience and mental health among vulnerable children and adolescents. Psychology in the Schools, 51(9), 899–912.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flett, G.L., Hewitt, P.L., Nepon, T., & Zaki-Azat, J.N. (2018). Children and adolescents “flying under the radar”: Understanding, assessing, and addressing hidden distress among students. In Handbook of School-Based Mental Health Promotion (pp. 357–381). Springer, Cham.

  • Frost, R. O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R. (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14(5), 449–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glassman, L. H., Weierich, M. R., Hooley, J. M., Deliberto, T. L., & Nock, M. K. (2007). Child maltreatment, non-suicidal self-injury, and the mediating role of self-criticism. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(10), 2483–2490.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, S. H., & Garber, J. (2017). Evidence‐based interventions for depressed mothers and their young children. Child Development, 88(2), 368–377.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hewitt, P.L., & Flett, G.L. (2002). Perfectionism and stress processes in psychopathology. In G.L. Flett & P.L. Hewitt (Eds), Perfectionism: Theory, research, and treatment (pp. 255–284). American Psychological Association.

  • Hooley, J. M. (2007). Expressed emotion and relapse of psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 3, 329–352.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Howard, M. C., & Hoffman, M. E. (2018). Variable-centered, person-centered, and person-specific approaches: where theory meets the method. Organizational Research Methods, 21(4), 846–876.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kochanska, G., Brock, R. L., Chen, K. H., Aksan, N., & Anderson, S. W. (2015). Paths from mother-child and father-child relationships to externalizing behavior problems in children differing in electrodermal reactivity: A longitudinal study from infancy to age 10. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43(4), 721–734.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Koestner, R., Zuroff, D. C., & Powers, T. A. (1991). Family origins of adolescent self-criticism and its continuity into adulthood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100(2), 191.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Krause, E. D., Mendelson, T., & Lynch, T. R. (2003). Childhood emotional invalidation and adult psychological distress: The mediating role of emotional inhibition. Child Abuse & Neglect, 27(2), 199–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lanza, S. T., Flaherty, B. P., & Collins, L. M. (2003). Latent class and latent transition analysis. In J. A. Schinka & W. F. Velicer (Eds), Handbook of psychology: Research methods in psychology, Vol. 2 (pp. 663–685). John Wiley & Sons Inc.

  • Leonard, N. R., Gwadz, M. V., Ritchie, A., Linick, J. L., Cleland, C. M., Elliott, L., & Grethel, M. (2015). A multi-method exploratory study of stress, coping, and substance use among high school youth in private schools. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1028.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C., & Lamb, M. E. (2003). Fathers’ influences on children’s development: the evidence from two-parent families. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 18(2), 211–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindsey, E. W., & Mize, J. (2001). Interparental agreement, parent‐child responsiveness, and children’s peer competence. Family Relations, 50(4), 348–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lund, T. J., & Dearing, E. (2013). Is growing up affluent risky for adolescents or is the problem growing up in an affluent neighborhood? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 23(2), 274–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luthar, S. S., & Barkin, S. H. (2012). Are affluent youth truly “at risk”? Vulnerability and resilience across three diverse samples. Development and Psychopathology, 24(2), 429–449.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Luthar, S. S., Barkin, S. H., & Crossman, E. J. (2013). “I can, therefore I must”: fragility in the upper-middle classes. Development and Psychopathology, 25(4pt2), 1529–1549.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Luthar, S. S., & Becker, B. E. (2002). Privileged but pressured? A study of affluent youth. Child Development, 73(5), 1593–1610.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Luthar, S. S., & Latendresse, S. J. (2005). Children of the affluent: challenges to well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(1), 49–53.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Luthar, S.S., & Kumar, N.L. (2018). Youth in high-achieving schools: Challenges to mental health and directions for evidence-based interventions. In Handbook of School-Based Mental Health Promotion (pp. 441–458). Springer, Cham.

  • Luthar, S. S., Kumar, N. L., & Zillmer, N. (2019). High-achieving schools connote risks for adolescents: Problems documented, processes implicated, and directions for interventions. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000556.

  • Lyman, E. L., & Luthar, S. S. (2014). Further evidence on the “costs of privilege”: perfectionism in high‐achieving youth at socioeconomic extremes. Psychology in the Schools, 51(9), 913–930.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Martins, N., Mares, M. L., & Nathanson, A. I. (2019). Mixed messages: inconsistent parental mediation indirectly predicts teens’ online relational aggression. Journal of Family Communication, 19(4), 311–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masyn, K. E. (2013). Latent class analysis and finite mixture modeling. The Oxford Handbook of Quantitative Methods in Psychology, 2, 551–611.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarty, C. A., Lau, A. S., Valeri, S. M., & Weisz, J. R. (2004). Parent-child interactions in relation to critical and emotionally overinvolved expressed emotion (EE): Is EE a proxy for behavior? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32(1), 83–93.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Steinberg, L., Myers, S. S., & Robinson, L. R. (2007). The role of the family context in the development of emotion regulation. Social Development, 16(2), 361–388.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, B., & Muthén, L. K. (2000). Integrating person‐centered and variable‐centered analyses: Growth mixture modeling with latent trajectory classes. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 24(6), 882–891.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2019). Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity. Washington DC: The National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nylund, K. L., Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. O. (2007). Deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: a Monte Carlo simulation study. Structural Equation Modeling, 14(4), 535–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peris, T. S., & Miklowitz, D. J. (2015). Parental expressed emotion and youth psychopathology: New directions for an old construct. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 46(6), 863–873.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shafran, R., & Mansell, W. (2001). Perfectionism and psychopathology: A review of research and treatment. Clinical Psychology Review, 21(6), 879–906.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sheeber, L. B., Davis, B., Leve, C., Hops, H., & Tildesley, E. (2007). Adolescents’ relationships with their mothers and fathers: associations with depressive disorder and subdiagnostic symptomatology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116(1), 144.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Soenens, B., Elliot, A. J., Goossens, L., Vansteenkiste, M., Luyten, P., & Duriez, B. (2005). The intergenerational transmission of perfectionism: parents’ psychological control as an intervening variable. Journal of Family Psychology, 19(3), 358.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. R. (2007). Making sense of multiple informants in child and adolescent psychopathology: a guide for clinicians. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 25(2), 139–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suldo, S. M., Shaunessy, E., & Hardesty, R. (2008). Relationships among stress, coping, and mental health in high‐achieving high school students. Psychology in the Schools, 45(4), 273–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Widiger, T. A. (2011). Personality and psychopathology. World Psychiatry, 10(2), 103–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yan, J., Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J., & Feng, X. (2019). Trajectories of mother-child and father-child relationships across middle childhood and associations with depressive symptoms. Development and Psychopathology, 31(4), 1381–1393.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yates, T. M., Tracy, A. J., & Luthar, S. S. (2008). Nonsuicidal self-injury among “privileged” youths: Longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches to developmental process. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(1), 52.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yoshikawa, H., Aber, J. L., & Beardslee, W. R. (2012). The effects of poverty on the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children and youth: implications for prevention. American Psychologist, 67(4), 272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This study was funded by Authentic Connections (grant number: N/A).

Author Contributions

KS analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript. SS Lee assisted with analyzing the data and edited the manuscript. SS Luthar designed and executed the study and edited the final manuscript. The authors thank Ashley Ebbert for her contributions during various stages of manuscript preparation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Kelsey Stiles & Steve S. Lee

  2. Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Suniya S. Luthar

Authors
  1. Kelsey Stiles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Steve S. Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Suniya S. Luthar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kelsey Stiles.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The CEO of Authentic Connections, the 501 C nonprofit organization that provided access to the data discussed, is an immediate family member of SS Luthar. KS and SS Lee declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Arizona State University Institutional Review Board (reference number STUDY2629) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study involved secondary analyses of pre-existing anonymous data.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stiles, K., Lee, S.S. & Luthar, S.S. When Parents Seek Perfection: Implications for Psychological Functioning Among Teens at High-Achieving Schools. J Child Fam Stud 29, 3117–3128 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01828-9

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01828-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation