Lavinia E. Damian

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.

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 has been shown to predict individual differences in achievement goal orientations in university students, but research on perfectionism and goal orientations in school students is still very limited. Investigating 584 adolescent school students in a cross‐sectional correlational design, the present study examined how self‐oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted students’ goal orientations. Multiple regression analyses showed that, when the overlap between the different goal orientations was controlled for, self‐oriented perfectionism positively predicted mastery‐approach and mastery‐avoidance goal orientations whereas socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted performance‐approach orientation. The present findings indicate that perfectionism predicts individual differences in adolescent school students’ achievement goal orientations, but different forms of perfectionism are associated with different patterns of goal orientations.