Perceived Parenting Styles, Perfectionism, and Social Appearance Anxiety among Emerging Adults: A Mediation Analysis

The main purpose of the study is to examine the mediating role of perfectionism in the relationship between perceived parenting styles (emotional warmth, overprotection, and rejection) and social appearance anxiety among emerging adults. Conducted as a relational survey model, the study sample included 410 university students (262 females, 148 males). Data were collected using the Personal Information Form, the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale, the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, and the The Short Form of EMBU for Children. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and Bootstrapping techniques were used for data analysis. Social appearance anxiety was positively correlated with perfectionism, maternal/paternal overprotection and maternal/paternal rejection, but negatively related to maternal/paternal emotional warmth. Moreover, perfectionism was positively correlated with maternal/paternal overprotection and rejection but not with emotional warmth. The results of the bootstrapping analysis revealed that maternal/paternal overprotection and rejection, but not emotional warmth correlated with social appearance anxiety via perfectionism. This suggests that parenting styles are indirectly linked to social appearance anxiety through perfectionism in emerging adults. These findings are expected to shed light on preventive and therapeutic interventions, especially in the context of mental health counselling to reduce social appearance anxiety in emerging adults, and to guide future research.