Specifically, highly perfectionistic rearing behaviors (i.e., emphasis on accuracy and avoidance of mistakes)
led to greater observed SOP in all children. Furthermore, although it was in the high perfectionistic
rearing condition that mothers were instructed to emphasize accuracy and avoidance of mistakes,
it was children in the non-perfectionistic rearing condition who performed with greater accuracy on
the Figure Copy Task from pre- to post-experimental manipulation. Together, these results revealed
that highly perfectionistic rearing increased observable perfectionistic behaviors without improving
task performance. In contrast, non-perfectionistic rearing reduced observed perfectionism in the children
and improved their task performance. Finally, the differential impact of perfectionistic rearing
behaviors on anxious and non-anxious children was negligible, and our hypothesis that high perfectionistic
rearing would have a more pronounced impact on anxious children than on non-anxious children
was not supported. However, it is worth noting that one of our results revealed that non-anxious
children, but not anxious children, reported significantly less striving for perfectionism in the non-perfectionistic
rearing condition.