Perfectionism in adolescent school students: Relations with motivation, achievement, and well-being

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Abstract

Positive conceptions of perfectionism (Stoeber & Otto, 2006) suggest that striving for perfection is associated with positive characteristics and adaptive outcomes. To investigate whether this also holds for adolescent school students, a sample of 121 ninth-graders completed measures of perfectionism at school (striving for perfection, negative reactions to imperfection), perceived parental pressure to be perfect, motivation, school achievement, and well-being. Results showed that negative reactions to imperfection were related to fear of failure, somatic complaints, and depressive symptoms; and perceived parental pressure was related to somatic complaints. In contrast, striving for perfection was related to hope of success, motivation for school, and school achievement. Moreover, striving for perfection showed a negative correlation with depressive symptoms, once the influence of negative reactions to imperfection was partialled out. The findings show that striving for perfection in adolescent school students is associated with positive characteristics and adaptive outcomes and thus may form part of a healthy pursuit of excellence. Negative reactions to imperfection and perceived parental pressure to be perfect, however, are associated with negative characteristics and maladaptive outcomes and thus may undermine adolescents’ motivation and well-being.

Introduction

Individuals with high levels of perfectionism are characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting of excessively high standards for performance accompanied by tendencies for overly critical evaluations of their behavior (Flett and Hewitt, 2002, Frost et al., 1990). This may have positive and negative consequences: While setting high standards may have positive consequences such as higher motivation and higher achievement (Bieling, Israeli, Smith, & Antony, 2003), being overly self-critical may reduce well-being and put individuals at risk for depression (Dunkley, Blankstein, Masheb, & Grilo, 2006). Consequently, when investigating perfectionism, it is important to differentiate between two major dimensions of perfectionism (Frost et al., 1993, Stoeber and Otto, 2006). On the one hand, there is the positive dimension of perfectionistic strivings representing perfectionists’ high standards for performance. This dimension has also been described as normal, healthy, or adaptive perfectionism. On the other hand, there is the negative dimension of perfectionistic concerns representing perfectionists’ negative attitudes towards mistakes, harsh self-criticism, and feelings of discrepancy between performance and expectations. This dimension has also been described as neurotic, unhealthy, or maladaptive perfectionism (Hamachek, 1978, Rice et al., 1998, Stumpf and Parker, 2000, Terry-Short et al., 1995).

In a recent review on the differences between these two dimensions (Stoeber & Otto, 2006), the perfectionistic strivings dimension was found to be related to positive characteristics such as conscientiousness, endurance, positive affect, and satisfaction with life. Moreover, it was found to be related to academic achievement, regarding both specific exams and overall academic performance: College students with higher levels of perfectionistic strivings received higher grades in a mid-term exam than those with lower levels of perfectionistic strivings (Bieling et al., 2003). Furthermore, students classified as adaptive perfectionists (high perfectionistic strivings and low perfectionistic concerns) showed a higher grade point average than maladaptive perfectionists (high perfectionistic strivings and high perfectionistic concerns) and nonperfectionists (low perfectionistic strivings) (Grzegorek et al., 2004, Rice and Slaney, 2002). In contrast, the perfectionistic concerns dimension was found to be related only to negative characteristics, the most prominent of these being depression and anxiety (Stoeber & Otto, 2006).

While there is a plethora of studies on perfectionism in college students, our knowledge about perfectionism in adolescent school students is still very limited. So far, only four studies have investigated how perfectionism relates to motivation, school achievement, and well-being in adolescent school students (Accordino et al., 2000, Einstein et al., 2000, Nounopoulos et al., 2006, Vandiver and Worrell, 2002). Employing Hewitt and Flett’s multidimensional measure of pefectionism (Hewitt & Flett, 1991), Einstein et al. (2000) investigated how self-oriented and socially prescribed pefectionism related to motivation, school engagement, and well-being in high school students prior to a period of major exams. They found that self-oriented perfectionism—which is a core facet of the perfectionistic strivings dimension (Stoeber & Otto, 2006)—was related to self-reported motivation for the upcoming exams and number of hours spent studying per week, indicating that students who strive for perfection are more motivated and more engaged at school than students who do not strive for perfection. Moreover, self-oriented perfectionism was also related to stress, indicating that school students who strive for perfection may also feel under greater pressure than students who do not strive for perfection. However, the relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and stress was only small and failed to reach significance once the influence of socially prescribed perfectionism—a core facet of the perfectionistic concerns dimension—was partialled out. Socially prescribed perfectionism was unrelated to motivation and engagement, but showed significant correlations with stress, depression, and anxiety. Employing Slaney et al.’s multidimensional measure of perfectionism (Slaney, Rice, Mobley, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001), Accordino et al. (2000) found that discrepancy between performance and expectations—another core facet of perfectionistic concerns—was related to higher depression in school students of grades 10–12. In contrast, high standards—a core facet of perfectionistic strivings—were related to mastery orientation (indicating a preference for challenging tasks), work orientation (reflecting the desire to work hard), and higher grade point average. Similar findings are reported by two further studies (Nounopoulos et al., 2006, Vandiver and Worrell, 2002) that investigated perfectionism and school engagement in middle school students, and that also found high standards to be related to higher grade point average.

While the studies suggest that perfectionistic strivings in adolescent school students are related to higher levels of motivation, achievement, and well-being, there remain some questions. First, the studies indicate that students who strive for perfection are more motivated. However, they do not address the question of whether they are more motivated by the motive to achieve success (hope of success) or by the motive to avoid failure (fear of failure) (Atkinson, 1957). Studies have shown that hope of success and fear of failure may have contrary effects on students’ achievement and task engagement and that perfectionism is related to both motives (Frost and Henderson, 1991, Slade and Owens, 1998). In a series of studies on perfectionism in athletes (Stoeber and Becker, submitted for publication, Stoeber et al., 2005), negative reactions to imperfection were found to be related to fear of failure and somatic complaints. In contrast, striving for perfection was found to be related to hope of success and number of hours of training, suggesting that only striving for perfection is related to success motivation and greater engagement whereas negative reactions to imperfection are related to failure motivation and lower well-being. Consequently, it would be important to differentiate striving for perfection from negative reactions to imperfection. Moreover, it would be important to take into account recent findings that perfectionistic tendencies in school may differ from global perfectionistic differences (Dunn, Gotwals, & Dunn, 2005). Therefore, when looking at perfectionism in relation to motivation, achievement, and well-being in school students, this would suggest the need to investigate students’ perfectionism at school, not their global perfectionism. Finally, it would be important to investigate the role that parental pressure to be perfect plays in the relationship between perfectionism and school students’ motivation, achievement, and well-being. Previous research has found perceived parental pressure—comprising perceived parental expectations to be perfect and perceived parental criticism for not being perfect (Stöber, 1998, Stumpf and Parker, 2000)—to be related to psychological maladjustment, somatic complaints, and depressive symptoms in both sixth-graders and college students (Hill et al., 2004, Stöber, 1998, Stumpf and Parker, 2000). Thus parental pressure to be perfect is a factor that should be taken into account when looking at perfectionism in adolescent school students.

Against this background, the aim of the present study was to investigate further the relationship between perfectionism and motivation, school achievement, and well-being in adolescent school students by examining how two aspects of perfectionism at school (striving for perfection, negative reactions to imperfection) relate to motivation (hope of success, fear of failure, motivation for school), school achievement (grades), and well-being (somatic complaints, depressive symptoms), and what role perceived parental pressure plays in these relationships. In line with evidence that striving for perfection is related to healthy and adaptive characteristics whereas negative reactions to imperfection are related to unhealthy and maladaptive characteristics (e.g., Stoeber and Otto, 2006, Stoeber et al., in press, Stoeber and Rennert, 2005), we expected striving for perfection to be related to hope of success and higher achievement. In contrast, we expected negative reactions to imperfection and perceived parental pressure to be related to fear of failure and lower well-being.

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

A sample of N = 121 adolescent school students (59% female) attending ninth-grade was recruited at two high schools in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Mean age of participants was 14.6 years (SD = 0.7, range = 14–17). Questionnaires were administered in the classrooms during class time. While a school teacher was present to ensure student attendance, all distribution and collection of questionnaires were handled by the second author as were all instructions. As all students were under the age of 18, informed

Results

First, the correlation of the two aspects of perfectionism was inspected. In line with previous findings (Stoeber et al., in press), striving for perfection showed a significant correlation with negative reactions to imperfection, r = .65, p < .001, indicating that adolescent students who strive for perfection at school tend to react negatively when they do not achieve perfect results. Moreover, the high correlation suggested that, in addition to zero-order correlations, partial correlations should

Discussion

The aim of the present research was to investigate further how perfectionism in adolescent school students relates to motivation, achievement, and well-being, by examining two aspects of perfectionism at school (striving for perfection, negative reactions to imperfection) and perceived parental pressure to be perfect. As expected, striving for perfection was related to hope of success and motivation for school whereas negative reactions to imperfection were related to fear of failure,

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Franziska Reschke and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article.

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