Relationship between Personality and Perceived Parenting Styles with Perfectionism among Academically Gifted Students

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the relationship of personality and perceived parenting styles with perfectionism among academically gifted students in the Malaysian context. The sample consisted of 448 Form Four students chosen through cross-sectional random sampling procedures among those who scored straight A’s in their Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) from six Cluster and High Performance schools in Selangor. A quantitative survey approach was used in this study. This study used the Bahasa Malaysia version of the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), and Multidimensional Perfectionism (FMPS). Results indicated that 259 (57.8%), 136 (30.4%), and 53 (11.8%) students were clustered to maladaptive perfectionists, adaptive perfectionists, and non-perfectionists, respectively. Significantly, there is a strong positive relationship between positive perfectionism with openness to experience, conscientiousness, paternal authoritativeness, and maternal authoritativeness. A strong positive relationship was seen between negative perfectionism with neuroticism, maternal authoritarianism, and paternal authoritarianism. The results of two separate stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that positive perfectionism was significantly predicted by paternal authoritative style and openness to experiences. They contributed approximately 55.0 percent of the variance of the development of positive perfectionism. Negative perfectionism was significantly predicted by maternal authoritarian style and neuroticism. However, they contributed approximately 56.4 percent of the variance of the development of negative perfectionism. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research were discussed.