Perfectionism in Adolescence: Associations With Gender, Age, and Socioeconomic Status in a Norwegian Sample

Abstract

Background: Perfectionism in adolescence has received increased attention, but few studies have examined this in non-clinical samples. This study investigated perfectionism among adolescents from the general population in relation to demographic factors.Methods: The present study is cross-sectional and draws on the epidemiological youth@hordaland study. The sample consisted of 10.217 adolescents aged 16–19 years (52.9% girls). Self-reported perfectionism was assessed by the EDI-P scale from the Eating Disorder Inventory with two dimensions of perfectionism, namely self-oriented (SOP) and socially prescribed (SPP) perfectionism, and a total score. Perfectionism was analyzed in relation to age, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES) by perceived economic well-being and parental education level. Chi-squared tests, t-tests, and regression analyses were performed.Results: There were few gender differences on the mean scores on perfectionism, with similar levels on the total score of EDI-P and SOP, while girls scored slightly higher on SPP (p < 0.001). The latter gender difference represented a small effect size (Cohen's d = 0.053). Chi-square analyses with perfectionism split at the 90th percentile across gender showed that there were significantly more girls than boys among the high scorers both for EDI-P, EDI-SOP, and EDI-SPP. There were no significant differences between levels of perfectionism between the three age groups. The logistic regression analyses adjusted by age and gender showed that adolescents with a better perceived economic well-being had increased odds of high perfectionism. This was evident for overall EDI-P (OR = 1.760, 95% CI = 1.493–2.076), SOP (OR = 1.543, 95% CI = 1.292–1.843), and SPP (OR = 1.836, 95% CI = 1.559–2.163). Parental education was not significantly associated with perfectionism scores among the adolescents.Conclusions: The levels of perfectionism were relatively similar between the genders in the present study, besides slightly higher SPP among girls than boys. There were also significantly more girls than boys among the high scorers on overall perfectionism, SOP, and SPP, respectively. High perfectionism was related to SES for perceived economic well-being, but not for parental education level. Implications for further research and clinical interventions were suggested.

Associations between parental socioeconomic‐, family‐, and sibling status and risk of eating disorders in offspring in a Danish national female cohort

“…It is associated with a greater drive for good school performance (Ahrén et al, 2012;Ahren-Moonga et al, 2009;Dura & Bornstein, 1989). Furthermore, a recent Norwegian population-based study reported that perfectionism was overrepresented in girls from perceived affluent backgrounds; however, in this study the finding was independent of parental education (Sand et al, 2021).…”

The Relationship between Perfectionism, Psychiatric disorders and Use of Mental Health Services in Adolescence: Results from a National Patient Register Linkage Study

“…Perfectionism has not shown consistent sex (Curran & Hill, 2019) or age differences. Accordingly, it has previously been reported similar levels for EDI-P and SOP across gender in the present sample, and while girls scored slightly higher on SPP, this difference represented a small effect size (Sand et al, 2021). (Stornaes et al, 2019).…”

Implicit theories of intelligence, morality, and the world in a sample of Russian perfectionists

“…The role of gender and age was controlled in analysis because previous studies presented inconsistent findings about the relationships between gender, age, perfectionism, and implicit theories (Sand et al, 2021;Stoeber & Stoeber, 2009). In this study, age did not demonstrate an important contribution while gender made a significant one to implicit theories about the world only, but the variance explained was extremely small.…”

“…Gender and age were included in this study as fundamental factors of each individual that influence individual behaviour. Furthermore, these indicators will be controlled because some studies report gender and age differences in perfectionism (Sand et al, 2021), while others do not (Stoeber & Stoeber, 2009). Also, some researchers detected variations in implicit theories between females and males (Vindeker & Lukanin, 2020), while others did not (Dweck et al, 1995).…”