How Do the Dimensions of Perfectionism Relate to Mental Health?

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between the two central dimensions of perfectionism, Pure Personal Standards (PPS) and Maladaptive Evaluative Concerns (MEC), and psychological distress as well as positive affect. The study also explored two potential mediators, self-concealment (SC) and contingent self-worth (CSW), of the relationship between these perfectionism dimensions and various mental health measures. Participants completed questionnaires assessing perfectionism, the two mediator variables, and a number of measures of mental health, including depression, fear of negative evaluation, positive affectivity, and eating disorder symptomatology. Analyses revealed that extracting out the MEC from PPS perfectionism scores using partial correlations removed the one significant correlation of PPS with psychopathology, and strengthened its positive correlation with well-being. In contrast, the MEC dimension of perfectionism was positively related to psychopathology and negatively related to well-being, even when controlling for PPS scores using partial correlations. Mediational analyses indicated that CSW significantly mediated the relationships between PPS and mental health, including fully mediating the relationship between PPS and each measure of psychopathology. Multiple mediational analyses revealed that SC and/or CSW mediated the relationships between MEC and mental health indices. These findings suggest that the central aspect of perfectionism related to psychopathology is the MEC dimension whereas PPS is more closely associated with positive features of mental health. Findings also suggest that future investigations of the relationship between perfectionism and psychopathology take into consideration the mediating effects of SC and CSW.Portions of this manuscript were presented at the annual meeting of the European Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies,

Perfectionism, Body Dissatisfaction, and Bulimic Symptoms: The Intervening Role of Perceived Pressure to be Thin and Thin Ideal Internalization

“…In line with previous research demonstrating the role of EC perfectionism as a risk factor for eating disorder symptoms (DiBartolo et al, 2008;Soenens et al, 2008) and for bulimic symptoms in particular (Sherry & Hall, 2009), we found only EC (and not PS) perfectionism to predict increases in bulimic symptoms. This finding suggests that being overly critical of one's own behavior and performance increases the risk to experience bulimic symptoms two years later.…”

“…Specifically, studies where the shared variance of PS and EC perfectionism was taken into account, typically did not confirm that both dimensions are elevated in ED patients (e.g., Dunkley, Blankstein, Masheb, & Grilo, 2006;Sassaroli, Lauro, Ruggiero, Mauri, Viani, & Frost, 2008;Soenens et al, 2008) or that both dimensions contribute independently to the prediction of ED symptoms (e.g., Boone, Soenens, Braet, & Goossens, 2010;DiBartolo, Li, & Frost, 2008). Instead, these studies typically found that only EC perfectionism (and not PS perfectionism) was associated with diagnosis of ED or with severity of ED symptoms.…”

Relations Among Self-concealment, Mindfulness, and Internalizing Problems

“…Conceptually, while considered an adaptive behavioral tendency in some sociocultural contexts (O'Neil, Helms, Gable, David, & Wrightsman, 1986;Wallace & Constantine, 2005), self-concealment may serve as a maladaptive control-and avoidance-focused emotion/behavior regulation strategy in other contexts (Masuda, Anderson, et al, 2011;Masuda, Boone, & Timko, 2011). Research has shown that self-concealment is positively associated with global psychological symptoms (Cramer, 1999), depression (DiBartolo, Li, & Frost, 2008), anxiety (Larson & Chastain, 1990;Potoczniak, Aldea, & DeBlaere, 2007), and various forms of somatic complaints (Larson & Chastain, 1990). Selfconcealment is also found to be associated with maladaptive regulation tendencies, such as experiential avoidance (Masuda, Anderson, et al, 2011) and scrutinizing one's negative moods without being able to label these and adequately act upon them (Wismeijer, van Assen, Sijtsma, & Vingerhoets, 2009).…”

The Assessment of Self-Oriented and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism: Subscales Make a Difference

“…Consequently, we followed DiBartolo et al's recommendation and computed "pure personal standards" scores (i.e., personal standards without the two confounding items) in addition to the original personal standards scores. In the present analyses, however, we focused on the pure personal standards scores because they capture the positive striving aspects of perfectionism better than the original scores (see also DiBartolo, Li, & Frost, 2008;Sturman, Flett, Hewitt, & Rudolph, 2009). …”