As outlined previously, some research has used existing paradigms to elicit perfectionism. One study created an academic writing task to explore perfectionism in college students (Frost & Marten, 1990). However, such studies have not measured the extent to which perfectionistic behaviors are observable by others during task J.H. Mitchell et al. / Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 116 (2013) 1–18 3completion but rather rely on performance scores and self-reported perfectionism. To our knowledge, there is no observational measure of behavioral markers of perfectionism. The aim of the current study was to investigate the impact of perfectionistic rearing behaviors by parents on clinically anxious and non-anxious children during a novel observational task for perfectionism, the Figure Copy Task. Mother–child dyads were randomized into one of two conditions: high perfectionistic rearing condition or non-perfectionistic rearing condition. Mothers in the high perfectionistic rearing condition were instructed to interact with their children in a manner that focused on accuracy and avoidance of mistakes while the children were completing the Figure Copy Task. Mothers in the non-perfectionistic rearing condition were instructed to minimize the importance of accuracy and avoidance mistakes and to help their children in a relaxing and calm manner. The Figure Copy Task was completed three times across three phases of the experimental session. The first phase was a baseline measure of children’s perfectionism during the task (Figure Copy Task 1, pre-experimental manipulation), the second involved an intervention where mothers delivered high perfectionistic or non-perfectionistic rearing behaviors according to experimental randomization (Figure Copy Task 2), and the third phase determined the impact of the experimental rearing conditions (Figure Copy Task 3, post-experimental manipulation). We hypothesized that (a) anxious children would report and exhibit significantly higher perfectionism than non-anxious children at baseline, (b) high perfectionistic rearing behaviors during the Figure Copy Task would result in greater child perfectionism and poorer task performance compared with non-perfectionistic rearing behaviors, and (c) anxious children’s task performance and perfectionism would be significantly more affected by experimentally manipulated perfectionistic rearing behaviors than those of non-anxious children.