A recent Australian study at the University of Sydney (Craddock, Church & Sands. 2008) found that that extreme family enmeshment and highly authoritarian and psychologically controlling parental styles were significant predictors of dysfunctional perfectionism after controlling for the effects of idealistic distortion or the tendency to respond in a socially desirable manner. This outcome is consistent with the view that "unhealthy" or maladaptive family qualities are strongly associated with the occurrence of dysfunctional or maladaptive perfectionism, a trait that has been claimed to be "a pervasively destructive concept in terms of psychological well-being" (Rice, Ashby & Slaney, 1998).  In fact, both functional (helpful) and dysfunctional (destructive) aspects of perfectionism were found to be associated with family enmeshment and authoritarianism but the effect was stronger for dysfunctional perfectionism. Uniquely, dysfunctional perfectionism was predicted by the combination of family enmeshment, parental authoritarianism and parental psychological control. In contrast, functional perfectionism was associated with psychological control, but by low levels of family chaos in combination with family enmeshment and parental authoritarianism.

An implication for Prepare-Enrich Administrators is that it is possible that individuals growing up in families of origin that are highly enmeshed and in which the parents were authoritarian and controlling are likely to have a tendency towards dysfunctional perfectionism. This tendency might manifest itself in strong, almost obsessive, compulsions towards establishing and maintaining a "perfect" marriage, but doing so in unhelpful and insensitive kinds of ways. This is a pattern worth identifying and, in particular, encouraging a team or couple centred approach to establishing a marriage that works well for both members of the relationship.

References:

Craddock, A.E., Church, W., & Sands, A. (2008). Family of Origin Characteristics as

Rice, K. G., Ashby, J. S. & Slaney, R. B. (1998). Self-esteem as a mediator between perfectionism and depression: A structural equations analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 45, 304-314.