The complex story of educational identity in adolescence: Longitudinal relations with academic achievement and perfectionism.

OBJECTIVE: Education has a strong impact on adolescent development. This study investigated the complex longitudinal associations between educational identity processes, academic achievement, and perfectionism. METHOD: The study used a 4-wave design (N = 744 adolescents, Mage = 15.2 years, 55% girls). RESULTS: Results showed that self-oriented perfectionism mediated the longitudinal relation between academic achievement and educational commitment, whereas educational commitment mediated the longitudinal relation between self-oriented perfectionism and academic achievement. Also, a unidirectional positive direct link from educational in-depth exploration to socially prescribed perfectionism was found, while self-oriented perfectionism mediated the positive relationship between academic achievement and exploration. Finally, higher academic achievement led to decreases in educational reconsideration of commitment, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted increases in educational reconsideration of commitment and decreases in academic achievement. CONCLUSIONS: These findings bring forward the intricate and possibly sabotaging links between educational identity processes, academic achievement, and perfectionism.

The Very Best of Me: Longitudinal Associations of Perfectionism and Identity Processes in Adolescence.

Personality and identity formation are intricately linked in adolescent development. The personality disposition of perfectionism has been associated with identity processes, but their longitudinal interplay in adolescence has not yet been investigated. This four-wave study, with 5- to 6-month intervals between each wave (N = 744 Caucasian adolescents, Mage  = 15.2 years, 55% girls), examined associations between perfectionism (self-oriented and socially prescribed) and identity processes in the domain of future plans. Self-oriented perfectionism predicted increases in commitment making, identification with commitment, and exploration in depth. Socially prescribed perfectionism showed bidirectional positive relations with ruminative exploration. Exploration in depth predicted increases in socially prescribed perfectionism. Findings suggest that perfectionism is an important personality disposition in adolescent identity formation unfolding over time.

Eating disorder symptoms and the 2 × 2 model of perfectionism: mixed perfectionism is the most maladaptive combination.

PURPOSE: The 2 × 2 model of perfectionism (Gaudreau and Thompson in Personal Individ Diff 48:532-537, 2010) represents an important addition to the perfectionism literature, but so far has not been studied in relation with disordered eating. METHOD: Using the 2 × 2 model as analytic framework, this study examined responses from a convenience sample of 716 participants aged 19-68 years (71% female) investigating how self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) and socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) predicted individual differences in eating disorder symptoms, additionally controlling for body mass index, gender, and age. RESULTS: Results showed a significant SOP × SPP interaction indicating that the combination of high SOP and high SPP-called "mixed perfectionism"-was associated with the highest levels of eating disorder symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The findings demonstrate the utility of the 2 × 2 model of perfectionism as an analytic framework for examining perfectionism and disordered eating. Moreover, they suggest that mixed perfectionism is the most maladaptive form of perfectionism when it comes to disordered eating, such that having high levels of SPP combined with high levels of SOP represents the most maladaptive combination of perfectionism in terms of risk of eating disorder. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.

On the Development of Perfectionism: The Longitudinal Role of Academic Achievement and Academic Efficacy.

OBJECTIVE: Although perfectionism is a prominent personality disposition, only a few longitudinal studies have investigated how perfectionism develops. Theoretical models and qualitative studies have posited that academic success is a developmental antecedent of perfectionism. Yet, quantitative studies tend to interpret the cross-sectional relationships as academic success being an outcome of perfectionism. In light of these gaps in the literature, the present study was the first to investigate the longitudinal relationships between perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, academic achievement, and academic efficacy by examining academic success as an antecedent of perfectionism. METHOD: The study examined 487 adolescents (aged 12-19 years, 54% female) using a cross-lagged longitudinal design with three time points spaced 4-5 months apart. RESULTS: Results showed that academic achievement predicted relative increases in both perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, even when including academic efficacy. In addition, academic efficacy predicted relative increases in perfectionistic strivings. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to show that academic achievement is a common factor in the development of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, whereas academic efficacy plays a role only in the development of perfectionistic strivings. Implications of the findings for the development of perfectionism are discussed.

Perfectionism and eating disorder symptoms in female university students: the central role of perfectionistic self-presentation.

PURPOSE: Numerous studies have found perfectionism to show positive relations with eating disorder symptoms, but so far no study has examined whether perfectionistic self-presentation can explain these relations or whether the relations are the same for different eating disorder symptom groups. METHODS: A sample of 393 female university students completed self-report measures of perfectionism (self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism), perfectionistic self-presentation (perfectionistic self-promotion, nondisplay of imperfection, nondisclosure of imperfection), and three eating disorder symptom groups (dieting, bulimia, oral control). In addition, students reported their weight and height so that their body mass index (BMI) could be computed. RESULTS: Results of multiple regression analyses controlling for BMI indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted all three symptom groups, whereas self-oriented perfectionism positively predicted dieting only. Moreover, perfectionistic self-presentation explained the positive relations that perfectionism showed with dieting and oral control, but not with bulimia. Further analyses indicated that all three aspects of perfectionistic self-presentation positively predicted dieting, whereas only nondisclosure of imperfection positively predicted bulimia and oral control. Overall, perfectionistic self-presentation explained 10.4-23.5 % of variance in eating disorder symptoms, whereas perfectionism explained 7.9-12.1 %. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that perfectionistic self-presentation explains why perfectionistic women show higher levels of eating disorder symptoms, particularly dieting. Thus, perfectionistic self-presentation appears to play a central role in the relations of perfectionism and disordered eating and may warrant closer attention in theory, research, and treatment of eating and weight disorders.

Perfectionistic concerns predict increases in adolescents' anxiety symptoms: a three-wave longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although perfectionism has been proposed to be a risk factor for the development of anxiety, research on perfectionism and anxiety symptoms in adolescents is scarce and inconclusive. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the two higher-order dimensions of perfectionism - perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns - predict the development and maintenance of anxiety symptoms. An additional aim of the present study was to examine potential reciprocal effects of anxiety symptoms predicting increases in perfectionism. DESIGN: The study used a longitudinal design with three waves spaced 4-5 months apart. METHODS: A non-clinical sample of 489 adolescents aged 12-19 years completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. RESULTS: As expected, results showed a positive effect from perfectionistic concerns to anxiety symptoms, but the effect was restricted to middle-to-late adolescents (16-19 years old): Perfectionistic concerns predicted longitudinal increases in adolescents' anxiety symptoms, whereas perfectionistic strivings did not. Furthermore, anxiety symptoms did not predict increases in perfectionism. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for the understanding of the relationship between perfectionism and anxiety symptoms are discussed.