Parent and youth perfectionism and internalizing psychopathology

Teen Perspectives on Suicides and Deaths in an Affluent Community: Perfectionism, Protection, and Exclusion

Clusters of youth suicide and death are tragic for communities and present long-term consequences for the surviving youths. Despite an awareness of community-based patterns in youth suicide, our understanding of the social and community factors behind these events remains poor. While links between poverty and suicide have been well documented, wealthy communities are rarely targeted in suicide research. In response to this gap, we conducted ethnographic research in a wealthy U.S. town that, over a recent 10-year period, witnessed at least four youth suicides and seven more youth accidental deaths. Our interviews (n = 30) explored community values and stressors, interpersonal relationships, and high school experiences on participant perceptions of community deaths. Youth participants characterize their affluent community as having (1) perfectionist standards; (2) permissive and sometimes absent parents; (3) socially competitive and superficial relationships; and (4) a "bubble" that is protective but also exclusionary. Our qualitative findings reveal network influence in teen suicides and accidental deaths in a wealthy community. Greater attention paid to the negative effects of subcultural values and stressors in affluent communities is warranted. Further, our work promotes the value of ethnographic, community-based methodologies for suicidology and treatment.

The Influence of Parental Perfectionism and Parenting Styles on Child Perfectionism

Perfectionism is a significant transdiagnostic process related to the development and maintenance of several psychological disorders. The main models of the development of perfectionism focus on early childhood experiences and postulate that parental relation is an important factor for understanding this construct in children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between child and parental perfectionism, seeking to evaluate the empirical support of the Social Learning Model and the Social Expectations Model and children’s perception of parenting styles. The present study included 119 children (51.2% girls, M_age = 11.67 years) and their parents. Data were collected through administration of several self-report measures. The results show a relationship between the majority of the same parent and child perfectionism dimensions, thus providing supportive evidence for the Social Learning Model. Concerning the analysis of the role of gender in the transmission of perfectionism, observed fathers’ perfectionism only relates with the sons’ perfectionism, and mothers’ perfectionism relates with daughters’ perfectionism. Our findings allow for a deeper understanding of the role of the perception of an authoritarian parenting style in the development of maladaptive perfectionism. Mother and fathers’ perceived parenting styles contribute more to daughter than son perfectionism. The results contribute to expanding the understanding of the role of parental factors in the development of perfectionism.

A Reference-Dependent Computational Model of Anorexia Nervosa

Influential accounts interpret anorexia as arising from perfectionism, dichotomous thinking, and poor control expressed in a variety of life domains, resulting in low self-esteem. In this context, restraining eating would allow patients to re-establish some control and self-esteem. Although this view has offered important insight, one shortcoming is that constructs such as perfectionism, control, and dichotomous thinking, remain poorly specified. To clarify these constructs, we propose a computational model of anorexia. This relies on previous theories of evaluation, which highlight its reference-dependent nature: when attributing a value to an outcome, our brain automatically assesses the outcome relative to its context. Following these theories, the model proposes that a high reference point explains general characteristics such as perfectionism, dichotomous thinking, low self-esteem, and low sense of control. These characteristics would result specifically in anorexia when the sense of control regarding body shape, compared with other life domains, is relatively high. The model raises the possibility that reference effects also might explain why patients pursue extremely low weight; exposure to skinny body images-one product of obsessive dieting-might change the reference point for their own body, hence leading to extremely low body weight, staunch refusal to gain weight, and body misperceptions. The model contributes to clarify key concepts adopted in the literature and their relation. Such computational formulation might help to foster theoretical debate, formulating novel empirical predictions, and integrate psychological and neuroscientific perspectives on anorexia.

Perfectionism and Neuroticism: Evidence for a common genetic and environmental etiology

INTRODUCTION

Recent meta-analyses have shown that perfectionism dimensions display significant relationships with the Big Five factors, with the strongest associations being detected between perfectionistic concerns and Neuroticism. To date, no research investigating the etiologic factors underlying these relationships has been conducted.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of our study was to address this literature gap by exploring the genetic and environmental influences that explain the phenotypic associations between perfectionistic concerns and Neuroticism.

METHOD

We used a multivariate twin design and tested two theoretical genetic models, an Independent and a Common Pathway model, on a sample of 678 Romanian twins.

RESULTS

Univariate estimates showed that perfectionistic concerns and Neuroticism are moderately heritable (32%-46%). Multivariate analyses revealed that their phenotypic relationships were largely explained by additive genetic factors (r_g between .58 and .73). The best-fit Independent Pathway model indicated that perfectionistic concerns and Neuroticism were influenced directly by some common genetic and environmental factors accounting for approximately half of their individual variance.

CONCLUSION

The overlap between perfectionistic concerns and Neuroticism is mainly explained by a common genetic etiology. However, perfectionistic concerns and Neuroticism are still distinct personality features as their variances are also influenced by specific genetic and environmental factors.

Is intelligence related to perfectionism? Multidimensional perfectionism and parental antecedents among adolescents across varying levels of cognitive ability

OBJECTIVE

Although intellectually gifted individuals are often portrayed as perfectionists, evidence for an association between cognitive ability and perfectionism is inconclusive. This study investigates the relations between cognitive ability and two distinct dimensions of perfectionism and addresses the role of parental antecedents of perfectionism in adolescents at different levels of cognitive ability.

METHOD

In a community sample of 3,168 adolescents and their parents, cognitive ability was assessed and perfectionism levels and parenting practices were surveyed.

RESULTS

Adolescents higher in cognitive ability reported higher levels of Personal Standards (i.e., setting ambitious objectives) but lower levels of Concern over Mistakes (i.e., worrying excessively about mistakes). Parental criticism, high parental expectations, and conditionally regarding parenting were associated positively with Concern over Mistakes, and high parental expectations were related positively to Personal Standards. These associations were generally independent of adolescents' cognitive ability. Parents of adolescents higher in cognitive ability relied less on parenting practices associated with the development of perfectionism.

CONCLUSION

Cognitive ability is related to a higher pursuit of personal standards, yet does not constitute a risk factor for excessive concerns about mistakes. Parental antecedents were related similarly and in theoretically meaningful ways to adolescent perfectionism across different levels of cognitive ability.

Feeling the Pressure to Be Perfect: Effect on Pain-Related Distress and Dysfunction in Youth With Chronic Pain

Despite clinical observation of perfectionistic tendencies among youth with chronic pain and their parents as well as established relationships between perfectionism and functional somatic symptoms in adults and youth, no research in the pediatric pain literature has examined perfectionism. This study explored the role of various types of youth and parent perfectionism on youth and parent pain-related distress and behavior and youth pain-related dysfunction. At admission, 239 parent-child pairs from outpatient and day-treatment rehabilitation settings completed several questionnaires assessing perfectionism, pain-related distress, and pain-related dysfunction. Bivariate correlations indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism in youth and parents was linked to youth pain duration, parent and youth pain-related distress and behavior, and youth somatization. Indirect relations showed that youth socially prescribed perfectionism was the only form of perfectionism directly associated with youth somatization whereas all forms of youth perfectionism were indirectly associated with somatization and functional disability through increases in youth pain-related fear and catastrophizing. Additionally, socially prescribed perfectionism was the only type of parent perfectionism linked to youth pain-related dysfunction (somatization, functional disability) through its association with youth pain-related fear. Findings support clinical observations that parent and youth perfectionism is a psychosocial factor that should be targeted in pediatric chronic pain treatment.

PERSPECTIVE

Perfectionism in youth with chronic pain and their parents was indirectly linked to youth pain-related dysfunction through its effect on youth pain-related catastrophizing and fear. Findings support clinical observations that parent and youth perfectionism is a psychosocial factor that should be targeted in pediatric chronic pain treatment.

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

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.

More of a Good Thing Is Not Always Better: Validation of a Distress Overtolerance Measure

Distress tolerance (DT) refers to the ability to tolerate aversive psychological states. Research has mainly focused on the link between low DT and psychopathology with little empirical work on individuals on the high end (i.e., distress overtolerance). Distress overtolerance has been conceptualized as a tendency to tolerate very high levels of distress despite the negative consequences to one’s well-being. Currently, no measures of distress overtolerance have been developed, and current measures for DT are not well-suited for measuring distress overtolerance. To establish distress overtolerance as a construct, an exploratory factor analysis ( N = 251) of the distress overtolerance scale was conducted and revealed a two-factor structure (i.e., Capacity for Harm and Fear of Negative Evaluation). In Study 2 ( N = 257), a confirmatory factor analysis revealed strong psychometric properties, the expected nomological network, good construct validity, and incremental criterion utility. Results showed that this scale can be used as a starting point for the theoretical framework behind distress overtolerance.

Perfectionism in pediatric anxiety and depressive disorders

Although perfectionism has been identified as a factor in many psychiatric disorders across the life span, it is relatively understudied in pediatric anxiety and depressive disorders. Furthermore, there exists little cohesion among previous research, restricting the conclusions that can be made across studies. In this review, research associating perfectionism with pediatric anxiety and depression is examined and a framework is presented synthesizing research to date. We focus on detailing the current understanding of how perfectionism develops and interacts with other developmental features characteristic of anxiety and depression in children and potential pathways that result in anxiety and depressive disorders. This includes: how perfectionism is measured in children, comparisons with relevant adult literature, the development of perfectionism in children and adolescents, mediators and moderators of the link between perfectionism and anxiety and depression, and the role of perfectionism in treatment and prevention of these disorders. We also present research detailing perfectionism across cultures. Findings from these studies are beginning to implicate perfectionism as an underlying process that may contribute broadly to the development of anxiety and depression in a pediatric population. Throughout the review, difficulties, limitations, and gaps in the current understanding are presented while offering suggestions for future research.

Language of perfectionistic parents predicting child anxiety diagnostic status

Previous research has identified parental perfectionism as a risk factor for child anxiety. Yet few studies investigated why parental perfectionism may play such a role. Based on research suggesting parental verbal information and language use are associated with increased child fear beliefs and anxiety, the current study investigated the linguistic style of perfectionistic mothers and its relation to child anxiety. Participants were 71 mother-child dyads. Children were 3-12 years old, 57.7% female, and 30 were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Analyses showed that parental perfectionism was associated with increased second person pronouns, decreased adverbs, negative emotion words, and anger words. Second person pronouns and negative emotion words predicted child anxiety diagnostic status and mediated the relation between maternal perfectionism and child anxiety. These findings suggest that parental perfectionism may be associated with a specific language style that is related to child anxiety. Implications and future directions are discussed.

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.

An experimental manipulation of maternal perfectionistic anxious rearing behaviors with anxious and non-anxious children

The anxious rearing model of perfectionism development proposes that children develop perfectionism in response to parental worry about their children being imperfect and parental behaviors such as overprotection from mistakes and focus on the negative consequences of mistakes. In the current study, perfectionistic rearing behaviors were experimentally manipulated during a copy task in clinically anxious children (n = 42) and non-anxious children (n = 35). Children were randomized to receive high or non-perfectionistic rearing behaviors from their parents during the copy task designed to elicit child perfectionistic behaviors. Results showed that self-reported self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) was significantly higher in the anxious group compared with the non-anxious group. All children showed an increase in observed SOP in response to high perfectionistic rearing behaviors. Despite this increase in SOP in the high perfectionistic rearing condition, it was children in the non-perfectionistic rearing condition that improved significantly in task accuracy performance. Non-anxious children declined in task-related striving for perfectionism when they experienced non-perfectionistic rearing behaviors from their parents. Anxious children, however, did not show a decline in task-related striving following non-perfectionistic rearing. Results support the perfectionistic rearing model and parental perfectionistic behaviors' impact on children's observed and self-reported SOP and task performance.

Body dissatisfaction among pre-adolescent girls is predicted by their involvement in aesthetic sports and by personal characteristics of their mothers

Empirical evidence indicates that the dissatisfaction with one's body is widely present in the general population even at very early ages, and that it is predictive of future eating disorders. The family seem particularly influent for the development of body dissatisfaction while sports practice is associated to a higher prevalence of disordered eating. However the role of sports practice in the development of body dissatisfaction is still under debate and only few studies have evaluated together the influences of family and sport practice on body dissatisfaction. The present study aimed at evaluating both the singular and conjoint role of the type of sport and maternal influences in young female children. The sport influence was assessed comparing aesthetic and non-aesthetic disciplines; the mother's influence was evaluated considering her personal characteristics and her desire to have a thinner child. Results evidence that children involved in aesthetic sports, although thinner than those involved in non-aesthetic sports, report higher desire to be much thinner and have mothers who pressure them toward a greater thinness. Furthermore, children's body dissatisfaction in the sport groups is predicted by maternal characteristic like her habit to restrict her own eating and her perfectionism.