Perfectionism and Cognitive Factors in Distress and Dysfunction in Children and Adolescents: Introduction to the Special Issue

Relationship Between Child Perfectionism and Psychological Disorders

Objective: Perfectionism is one of the variables related to the correct emotional development or with the appearance of clinical symptomatology in childhood. A study has been designed to evaluate the differential effect that each dimension of perfectionism (external pressure, self-exigency, and negative self-evaluation) has in a Spanish children sample of general population for each of the following clinical aspects: irritability, worthlessness feelings, thinking problems, and psychophysiological symptoms. Method: By a random cluster sampling, a total of 2,636 children from 8 to 12 years (M = 9.9, SD = 1.2; 51.3% boys) took part in this research. A serial multiple mediators model was used to check the relation between external pressure over the clinical symptoms through self-exigency and negative-self-evaluation. Results: The results have shown a predictive effect of external pressure over a great variety of clinical symptomatology (irritability, worthlessness, thinking problems, and psychophysiological symptoms), a relation mediated by self-exigency and negative self-evaluation. These relations suggest that external pressure and negative self-evaluation are maladaptive dimensions as they predict the appearance of symptomatology, being the level of self-exigency a protective dimension and favoring the child's positive development. Conclusions: In consequence, these results point to the importance of the study of these variables that can generate difficulties in childhood in order to improve children's quality of life and their correct development.

Review: Assessment, development, and treatment of childhood perfectionism: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

In the adult literature, perfectionism has been linked with psychopathology and poor treatment outcomes, leading to perfectionism-focussed therapies. The child and adolescent perfectionism literature is comparatively sparse.

METHOD

A systematic search of five electronic databases (Web of Knowledge, APA PsycNET, PubMed, ERIC/ProQuest, and Scopus) was conducted to identify studies of perfectionism in children and adolescents, in the context of psychopathology.

RESULTS

The search identified 133 studies, 84 of which discussed perfectionism as a correlate of mental health problems. These studies were briefly synthesised, with the systematic review focussing on evaluating papers on the development (n = 23), assessment (n = 19), and treatment (n = 7) of perfectionism.

CONCLUSION

Treatment studies did not reflect the phenomenology of perfectionism found in this review.