The effect of parental perfectionism on children's anxiety levels: Mediator role of irrational beliefs of children

The aim of this study is to investigate the mediator role of irrational beliefs of children on the relationship between parental perfectionism levels and children's anxiety levels by focusing on the potential relationships between parental perfectionism, anxiety and irrational belief levels of children. The sample of the study consists of 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade students, aged between 10-13, living in Balıkesir and Istanbul. To determinate children's anxiety and irrational belief levels, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) and The Irrational Beliefs Scale for Adolescents (IBSA) were used respectively; and Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale was used to measure parents' perfectionism levels. Additionaly, Sociodemographical Information Form was used to evaluate the possible effect of sociodemographical characteristics. According to the findings obtained from the linear hierarchical regression analyses that were conducted to test the main hypotheses accordingly, maternal perfectionism towards others was a signficant predictor (p < .05) for children's state-trait anxiety and irrational belief levels; additionally, irrational belief levels of children has a significant predictive effect (p < .05) on anxiety levels of children. Moreover, results also demonstrated that irrational belief levels of children have a significant mediator effect on the relationship between maternal perfectionism level towards others and the state-trait anxiety levels of children.