Relations between maternal perfectionism, young children’s forgiveness, and social skills

Previous research suggested that parental expectations are linked with social outcomes in children. It should, however, be noted that there are different ways for parents to express their high expectations. Inspired by studies on perfectionism in the family setting, the present study sought to examine whether mothers’ perfectionistic strivings about children (i.e., setting high performance standards for children) and perfectionistic concerns about children (i.e., critical evaluations of the discrepancy between the ideal and actual performance of children) were related to their young children’s social skills. In addition to parental expectations, forgiveness is often found to predict social skills. Hence, another aim of the present study was to examine whether the relations between parents’ perfectionistic tendencies and young children’s social skills were mediated by young children’s forgiveness. Participants were 238 kindergarten children and their mothers in Hong Kong. Mothers were asked to report their perfectionistic tendencies about children, children’s forgiveness, and social skills through a questionnaire. Results of path analysis showed that after controlling for children’s age, mothers’ perfectionistic strivings about children only had a positive direct link with children’s social skills. Mothers' perfectionistic concerns about children, on the other hand, had a negative direct link with children's social skills, as well as an 213indirect link via children’s forgiveness. These findings suggest the importance of helping parents understand how to express their expectations to young children in a constructive manner, so as to better promote their young children’s early social skills development. Copyright © 2023 EARLI.