How overly strict mothers and their perfectionism can drive their children to drink
- Children whose mothers are authoritarian are more likely to have problems with alcohol abuse later in life
- Strict fathers, however, do not have the same negative effect on their offspring, according to a recent study
Research shows that children with stricter mothers are more likely to misuse alcohol as a coping mechanism to handle feelings of imperfection.
“There are adaptive forms of perfectionism such as higher standards and a need for orderliness and there are maladaptive forms of perfectionism such as discrepancy – the distance between the ideal self and one’s actual self,” explains Dr Julie Patock-Peckham, the lead author of the study and assistant research professor at Arizona State University.
Students with higher levels of discrepancy were more likely to experience symptoms of depression and have increased alcohol use. Furthermore, increased depressive symptoms were closely linked to self-medicated drinking.
Only strict mothers led to perfectionist discrepancy in children. Strict fathers encouraged children to have high standards but didn’t cause them to have depressive symptoms.
