Xing Huilin, Yao Meilin, Liu Hongrui
Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
J Youth Adolesc. 2025 May;54(5):1205-1220. doi: 10.1007/s10964-024-02125-0. Epub 2024 Dec 24.
Accurate parental praise and criticism congruent with child performance-often ignored-might have lasting impacts on child development. This study explored whether the levels of the accuracy (from deflated to accurate to inflated) of parental praise and criticism perceived by children linked to a risk for their maladjustment (i.e., showing negative affect, failure-is-debilitating mindset, and academic self-handicapping) in a nonlinear way and perfectionism acted as a mediator. Data were collected on 1230 early adolescents (44.9% girls; M = 11.0 years, SD = 1.6) who resided in Chinese county towns with their parents. Applying polynomial regression and response surface analysis (RSA), the results showed that (a) Chinese children perceived parents' tendency to slightly overpraise and overcriticize them; (b) perceptions of inflated and deflated parental praise and criticism were associated with higher levels of maladjustment outcomes; and (c) perfectionism played a mediating role in some cases. This study reveals the nonlinear and combined effects of the accuracy of parental praise and criticism and emphasizes the benefits of parental feedback commensurate with children's actual performance.
与孩子表现相符的准确的父母表扬和批评——往往被忽视——可能会对孩子的发展产生持久影响。本研究探讨了儿童所感知的父母表扬和批评的准确程度（从贬低到准确再到夸大）是否以非线性方式与他们适应不良的风险（即表现出消极情绪、失败使人虚弱的心态和学业自我妨碍）相关联，以及完美主义是否起到中介作用。对1230名与父母居住在中国县城的青少年早期儿童（44.9%为女孩；平均年龄M = 11.0岁，标准差SD = 1.6）收集了数据。应用多项式回归和响应面分析（RSA），结果表明：（a）中国儿童察觉到父母有轻微过度表扬和过度批评他们的倾向；（b）对夸大和贬低的父母表扬和批评的感知与更高水平的适应不良结果相关；（c）完美主义在某些情况下起到中介作用。本研究揭示了父母表扬和批评准确性的非线性和综合影响，并强调了与孩子实际表现相称的父母反馈的益处。
