Child Perfectionism and its Relationship with Personality, Excessive Parental Demands, Depressive Symptoms and Experience of Positive Emotions

Abstract

While adaptive perfectionism ensures good overall performance, maladaptive perfectionism is associated with emotional disorders for which psychological treatment is sought. There are many factors that can explain the development of this disorder throughout childhood. The present study analyzed to what extent the child's personality traits and excessive parental demands can predict maladaptive perfectionism, and, in turn, also analyzed how this relates to positive emotions and depressive symptoms in a sample of 404 Argentinian children (M age = 10.30; SD = 1.03). Stepwise multiple regression analyses and Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were performed. Results showed that excessive parental demands, together with high child neuroticism increased the likelihood of developing perfectionism (p < .001) throughout childhood. It was also noted that child perfectionism increased the symptoms of depression (p < .001), decreased feelings of gratitude (p = .018), increased the recognition of self-worth (p = .009) and activated certain aspects of sympathy towards others' pain (p = .043). These processes linked to perfectionism are discussed, clarifying their effects on children's mental health.

Self-criticism, Strivings and Aggressive Behavior in Spanish Children: The Two Sides of Self-Oriented Perfectionism

“…Despite these potential limitations, this study offers a novel contribution to the scientific community, given that it is the first study to examine the relationship between intrapersonal perfectionism and the components of aggressive behavior (i.e., cognitive, emotional and motor), considering the SOP-C and SOP-S dimensions as separated variables. Moreover, this work also serves to advance the research on childhood perfectionism, a field that has yet to be sufficiently explored (Oros et al, 2017). Instead of the absence of a significant relationship between perfectionist strivings and the dimensions of aggressive behavior, results suggest that children with high levels of self-criticism and a fear of making mistakes tend to be more hostiles, experience more frequent feelings of anger and manifest more aggressive behavior.…”

“…So, taking into account this empirical background, it is important to analyze aggressive behavior in children, as well as certain personality traits such as intrapersonal perfectionism, whose manifestations are visible in childhood (Oros, Iuorno, & Serppe, 2017). This goal aims to identify those variables that may act as risk or protective factors of the development of maladaptive patterns of aggressive behavior.…”

Neuroticism and Frontal EEG Asymmetry Correlated With Dynamic Facial Emotional Processing in Adolescents

“…People who are high in neuroticism are more probable to respond to emotional stimuli, and they have a low threshold for negative emotions (Minnix and Kline, 2004). Studies have shown a positive relationship between neuroticism and negative affect (Ng, 2009). One of the major emotional stimuli in social interactions is the human face.…”

Psychometric Properties of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale in Spanish Children and Adolescents

“…Perfectionism has been also associated with a poor therapeutic alliance (van der Kaap-Deeder, Smets, & Boone, 2016) and poor treatment outcomes (for reviews, see Lloyd, Schmidt, Khondoker, & Tchanturia, 2015; Morris & Lomax, 2014). The importance of perfectionism in several psychological disorders has promoted the study of the origin and developmental factors of perfectionism, such as rearing style (Kawamura, Frost, & Harmatz, 2002; Oros, Iuorno, & Serppe, 2017; Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Duriez, & Goosens, 2006).…”