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Evaluative Concerns and Personal Standards Perfectionism: Self-esteem as a Mediator and Moderator of Relations with Personal and Academic Needs and Estimated GPA

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Abstract

We examined the mediational role of self-esteem in the relation between evaluative concerns (EC) and personal standards (PS) perfectionism, and measures of personal concerns, academic concerns, and estimated grade point average (EGPA) in 386 university students. Self-esteem partially mediated the relation between EC perfectionism and students’ personal and academic concerns. EC perfectionism was a weak predictor of EGPA. PS perfectionism was not related to academic concerns. Although PS was associated with personal concerns both directly and indirectly through low levels of self-esteem in women only, these findings did not hold when controlling for EC perfectionism. PS perfectionism had a direct positive relation with EGPA. Neither PS nor EC perfectionism interacted with self-esteem to predict unique variance in personal or academic concerns or EGPA. The results are consistent with our view that a perfectionism dimension that is primarily maladaptive can be distinguished from a dimension that can be adaptive. The implications for research and treatment are considered.

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Notes

  1. Another negative dimension has been described that is referred to as self-critical perfectionism (e.g., Blankstein and Dunkley 2002; Dunkley and Blankstein 2000; Harkins et al. 2003; Wheeler et al. 2007). Self-critical perfectionism refers to the shared variance among the perfectionism components that comprise EC perfectionism and two other cognitive-personality vulnerability dimensions—self-criticism as described by Blatt et al. (1976) and autonomy as described by Beck et al. (1983). This construct obviously shares significant variance with EC perfectionism (Wheeler et al. 2007).

  2. Shafran et al. (2002) concluded that interpersonal components are not central to an understanding of perfectionism. We not only disagree with this conclusion but argue on the weight of the evidence that the interpersonal aspects should be a critical component of “clinical” perfectionism (also see Dunkley et al. 2006; Hewitt et al. 2003).

  3. Researchers have used different components, and different combinations of components from either two or three of the primary conceptualizations to arrive at their version of the two higher order dimensions (see Stoeber and Otto 2006), as well as different labels for the primary dimensions.

  4. The results of detailed item analyses and exploratory factor analyses of the SSN that were the basis for the development of the Personal Concerns and Academic Concerns subscales as well as item–total subscale correlations, additional subscale statistics, reliability analyses, evidence for construct validity, and the specific items for each subscale are available (Blankstein, Prezio, and Taylor, manuscript in preparation).

  5. The specifics of the few significant interactions can be obtained from the first author.

  6. Stein and Nyamathi (1999) found a much stronger relation between poor self-esteem and avoidant coping in women than in men, a further indication of the need to examine sex differences in the relation between perfectionism and adaptational outcomes.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada) General Research Grant and a University of Toronto at Mississauga Internal Research Grant awarded to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, Canada, L5L 1C6

    Kirk R. Blankstein & January Wilson

  2. Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry, S.M.B.D. Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada

    David M. Dunkley

  3. Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    David M. Dunkley

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  1. Kirk R. Blankstein
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  2. David M. Dunkley
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  3. January Wilson
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Correspondence to Kirk R. Blankstein.

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Blankstein, K.R., Dunkley, D.M. & Wilson, J. Evaluative Concerns and Personal Standards Perfectionism: Self-esteem as a Mediator and Moderator of Relations with Personal and Academic Needs and Estimated GPA. Curr Psychol 27, 29–61 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-008-9022-1

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