Perfectionism, Emotions, and Psychological Distress in Adolescents

cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence

Abstract

Although  the  relationships  between  perfectionism  and  negative  mental health outcomes are well-established, little is known about the development of these relationships and the role of emotional processing during adolescence. In this sense, the studies presented are part of a larger research project, of an observational nature, with longitudinal follow-up of perfectionism in adolescence. Study 1 (N=406) presents a cross-sectional approach based on data collected in 2019 and aimed to analyze the relationship between  perfectionism  and  common  psychiatric  symptoms  among adolescents,  while  study  2  (N=392)  sought  to  explore  the  association  between perfectionism  and  difficulties  in  emotional  processing  in  a  two-wave  longitudinal design (∆=8 months, SD=3.7). The adolescents  answered  instruments  to  assess  self-oriented  perfectionism  (SOP),  socially  prescribed  perfectionism  (SPP),  presence  of common psychiatric symptoms, neuroticism, and emotional processing. In line with expectations,   higher   levels   of   perfectionism   were   positively   correlated   with psychological distress and emotional processing difficulties. In study 1, analyzes using multiple  hierarchical  regressions  indicate  only  SPP  as  a  predictor  of  common psychiatric  symptoms  at  T1,  beyond  neuroticism  influence.  The results  of  study  2 regressions  indicate  that  both  perfectionist  dimensions  at  T1  are  independently associated with emotional processing difficulties at T2. Some factors involved in the relationship  between  perfectionism  and  worse  emotional  processing  are discussed, such  as  the  pursuit  of  unrealistic  goals,  greater  reactivity  to  stressors,  cognitive patterns, and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies.