The Relationship between Perfectionism of Mothers, to that of her Child and Goal Orientation

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to verify the relationship between a mother\'s perfectionism, the child\'sperfectionism and their goal orientation. For the purposes of this research, 1076 5th and 6th graders andtheir mothers were surveyed using Hewitt\'s Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and Goal OrientationScale(Elliot & Church, 1997). The results of the study were as follows. First, the self-oriented perfectionismof mothers was observed to have a significant influence on the child\'s learning goal and performance-approach goal through his/her self-oriented perfectionism, a significant negative influence on the child\'slearning goal through his/her socially prescribed perfectionism, and a significant influence on performance-avoidance goal and performance-approach goal. While the self-oriented perfectionism of mothers had asignificant influence on the child\'s other-oriented perfectionism, no significant influence on the child\'s goalorientation was found. Second, the other-oriented perfectionism of the mothers had a significant negativeinfluence on the child\'s performance-avoidance goal through his/her other-oriented perfectionism. Third,socially prescribed perfectionism of the mothers in this study had hardly any influence, either on thechild\'s perfectionism or on goal orientation.