Perfectionism, self‐stigma, and coping in students with dyslexia: The central role of perfectionistic self‐presentation

Abstract

Dyslexia is a prevalent condition, and a significant percentage of students in higher education are dyslexic. Despite this, few studies have investigated dyslexia in university students and what personality dispositions may predict how students feel about help‐seeking for dyslexia and how they cope with dyslexia. Against this background, the present study investigated perfectionism, self‐stigma, and coping in 115 university students with dyslexia, examining the relationships between dispositional perfectionism (self‐oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism) and perfectionistic self‐presentation with self‐stigma of seeking help and adaptive versus maladaptive coping with dyslexia. Results from regression and mediation analyses showed that perfectionistic self‐presentation predicted higher levels of self‐stigma and maladaptive coping, and lower levels of adaptive coping. Furthermore, both forms of dispositional perfectionism predicted higher levels of self‐stigma and maladaptive coping, and lower levels of adaptive coping, via perfectionistic self‐presentation (dispositional perfectionism→perfectionistic self‐presentation → self‐stigma and coping). The findings suggest that perfectionistic self‐presentation plays a central role in the relationships of perfectionism, self‐stigma, and coping in students with dyslexia, and that impression management, aimed at presenting a perfect self‐image (and hiding imperfections), represents a significant risk for students seeking help for, and successful coping with, dyslexia.

Examining frustration intolerance beliefs among adults with dyslexia or developmental coordination disorder

“…High achievement frustration suggests an emphasis on high standards, and an intolerance of the frustration of these standards (e.g., "I can't bear the frustration of not achieving my goals"). One previous study suggested that perfectionism self-presentation plays a central role in dyslexia (Stoeber & Rountree, 2020), and predicts negative reactions to impairment and disability (Read, Hill, Jowett, & Astill, 2019).…”

“…The latter are often described as extremely frustrated, owing to their inability (e.g., poor motor skills, academic failure) to meet their own and others' expectations (Abdul Hamid, Admodisastro, & Kamaruddin, 2015;Klassen et al, 2013). People with dyslexia may exhibit a low tolerance of difficulty (Sako, 2016), and a high level of perfectionism (Stoeber & Rountree, 2020). Thus, many of the emotional problems (e.g., feelings of low self-worth and incompetence; Gibby-Leversuch, Hartwell, & Wright, 2019) related to dyslexia occur out of frustration with school or social situations (Alexander-Passe, 2006;Al-Lamki, 2012;Jacobs, Parke, Ziegler, Headleand, & De Angeli, 2020).…”

A Systematic Review of the Consequences of Stigma and Stereotype Threat for Individuals with Specific Learning Disabilities

“…The most common outcomes examined were self-esteem/self-worth (n = 7 studies), anxiety (n = 3 studies), depression (n = 2 studies), and a metric of academic performance (n = 4 studies). Of these 12 studies, seven occurred in the context of the USA (Daley & Rappolt-Schlichtmann, 2018;Fleming & Wated, 2016;Haft et al, 2019;Heyman, 1990;Hoehn, 1999; STIGMA IN SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITIES Maki, 2021;Thornton, 2020), three in the UK (Abraham et al, 2002;Stoeber & Rountree, 2021;Szivos, 1991), and two in China (Chan et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2019).…”

“…Eight studies sampled participants in the childhood or adolescent age range (total of 508 participants; Chan et al, 2017;Daley & Rappolt-Schlichtmann, 2018;Haft et al, 2019;Heyman, 1990;Maki, 2021;Szivos, 1991;Thornton, 2020;Zhao et al, 2019), with the remaining four reporting data from adults (total of 428 participants; Abraham et al, 2002;Hoehn, 1999;Stoeber & Rountree, 2021;Szivos, 1991). Sex among the sample of individuals with SLDs was relatively balanced (45-55% female; 428 total participants) in only one of the studies (Maki, 2021)females were slightly overrepresented in the SLD sample in three of the studies (Abraham et al, 2002;Hoehn, 1999;Stoeber & Rountree, 2021), and were underrepresented in the SLD sample in seven of the studies (Chan et al, 2017;Daley & Rappolt-Schlichtmann, 2018;Haft et al, 2019;Heyman, 1990;Szivos, 1991;Thornton, 2020;Zhao et al, 2019). Half of the studies (n = 6) did not report the racial-ethnic composition of their sample of SLD participants.…”

“…These studies varied widely in terms of the stigma measure used -all were self-report scales except for a study that measured participants' attentional bias towards stimuli associated with stereotypes of SLDs (Haft et al, 2019). SLD diagnoses were confirmed by center manager, teacher or school report for the majority of the studies (n = 7; (Abraham et al, 2002;Daley & Rappolt-Schlichtmann, 2018;Haft et al, 2019;Heyman, 1990;Hoehn, 1999;Stoeber & Rountree, 2021;Thornton, 2020), by participant self-report for two studies (Fleming & Wated, 2016;Maki, 2021), by neuropsychological testing cutoff for one study (Zhao et al, 2019), and for one study it was STIGMA IN SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITIES unclear (Szivos, 1991). Three of the 12 studies were unpublished work from dissertations (Hoehn, 1999;Maki, 2021;Thornton, 2020).…”