Parenting as a moderator between maladaptive perfectionism and the development of depressive symptoms among adolescents in Hong Kong

Abstract

Depression has been shown to be a common mental disorder among adolescents around the globe (WHO, 2014) and in Hong Kong (Wong, Cheung, Chan, Ma, & Tang, 2006). Maladaptive perfectionism has been consistently found to be a significant risk factor for the development of depression (e.g. Cheng, Chong, & Wong., 1999; Kawamura, Hunt, Frost, & DiBartolo, 2001). Research in the field has proposed several underlying mechanisms explaining the association between maladaptive perfectionism and depression. For instance, a reliance on ruminative cognitive processes (Coulter, Hewitt, & Nepon, 2011; O’Connor, O’Connor, & Marshall, 2007) and ineffective emotion regulation strategies (Aldea & Rice, 2006; Tran & Rimes, 2017) have been suggested to mediate the aforementioned relationship. However, few studies have explored possible protective factors against the negative impact of maladaptive perfectionism. The current study attempted to first replicate the association between maladaptive perfectionism and depressive symptoms in the local context of Hong Kong. Second, the moderating power of authoritative parenting was examined. 116 adolescents within the age of 9-14 were recruited from local primary and secondary schools. The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children and the Parental Authority Questionnaire were employed to measure the level of maladaptive perfectionism during phase 1, depressive scores across both phase 1 and phase 2 as well as the level of authoritative parenting during phase 1 respectively. Findings confirmed that phase 1 maladaptive perfectionism significantly predicted depressive symptoms 1 year later. Moreover, authoritative parenting was found to be a significant moderator buffering against the harmful effect of maladaptive perfectionism. Specifically, medium and high level of authoritative parenting significantly moderated the association between phase 1 maladaptive perfectionism and phase 2 depressive symptoms. This result introduced insights on the design and planning for intervention programmes and highlighted the importance of parental involvement in the treatment of adolescent depression. Further research is warranted to examine the possible pathways on how authoritative parenting moderated the association between maladaptive perfectionism and depressive symptoms among adolescents.