Career mothers and perfectionism: stress at work and at home

We studied the relationship between perfectionism and career mothers' dual roles of worker and mother and perfectionism's association with subjective well-being. A sample of career mothers (N = 67) completed measures of perfectionism, job burnout, parenting stress and satisfaction with self and with life. Results indicated that negative forms of perfectionism were positively correlated to cynicism and exhaustion at work and to parental distress at home. Other-oriented perfectionism was also found to be positively correlated to parental distress at home. Negative and socially prescribed perfectionism were found to be related to a decreased sense of overall satisfaction with life and satisfaction with self. In addition, the results suggest a situational component to perfectionism. (C) Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.