Date of Award

8-2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between emotional deprivation and neglect experienced as a child, and the development of perfectionistic qualities as an adult. One hundred undergraduate college students, at the University of North Dakota, ages ranging from 18 to 26, were administered the Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI, Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ, Bernstein et al., 1994), and the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS, Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990). It was hypothesized that there would be a positive correlation between an individual's experience of emotional deprivation and neglect as a child, and the development of perfectionistic qualities as an adult. It was found that there was no correlation between the constructs of emotional neglect and perfectionism for the sample studied. In addition, there were no significant differences for males and females in terms of their experiences of emotional neglect. However, the results of the study did indicate that there were significant gender differences found in relation to different components of perfectionism, particularly concern over mistakes, parental criticisms, and organizational abilities, with males scoring higher in terms of their concern over mistakes and their perceived parental criticisms, and females scoring higher in terms of their organizational abilities. These results provide, at least some evidence, that the environment in which a child grows up, and the amount of parent-child bonding one experiences will influence the development of perfectionistic qualities in post-secondary students

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