Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Negative Affect and Child Internalizing Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Perfectionism

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Child Psychiatry & Human Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Separate lines of research have linked the temperament factor negative affect and perfectionism with internalizing disorders. Despite theory, no previous studies have connected these lines of research to examine internalizing pathology. The current study tested a path model to investigate the mediating effect of perfectionism domains on the relation between negative affect and child anxiety, worry, and depression symptoms. Participants were 61 parent–child dyads recruited from the community. Children were 7–13 years old (54.1 % male; 88.2 % Caucasian). Overall the model fit the data well. Analyses indicated that separate domains of perfectionism mediated separate relations between negative affect and child anxiety, worry, and depression symptoms. The findings suggest that domains of perfectionism may be implicated in specific paths between negative affect and child anxiety, depression, and worry. Implications and future directions are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Walters EE (2005) Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62:617–627

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Kovacs M, Devlin B (1998) Internalizing disorders in childhood. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 39:47–63

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Pine DS (2007) Research review: a neuroscience framework for pediatric anxiety disorders. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 48:631–648. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01751.x

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Pine DS, Cohen P, Gurley D, Brook J, Ma Y (1998) The risk for early-adulthood anxiety and depressive disorders in adolescents with anxiety and depressive disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 55:56–64

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Birmaher B, Ryan ND, Williamson DE, Brent DA, Kaufman J, Dahl RE et al (1996) Childhood and adolescent depression: a review of the past 10 years. Part I. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 35:1427–1439

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Costello EJ, Egger HL, Angold A (2005) The developmental epidemiology of anxiety disorders: phenomenology, prevalence, and comorbidity. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 14:631–648

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Calkins SD, Fox NA (2002) Self-regulatory processes in early personality development: a multilevel approach to the study of childhood social withdrawal and aggression. Dev Psychopathol 14:477–498

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Compas BE, Connor-Smith J, Jaser SS (2004) Temperament, stress reactivity, and coping: implications for depression in childhood and adolescence. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 33:21–31

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Muris P, Ollendick TH (2005) The role of temperament in the etiology of child psychopathology. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 8:271–289. doi:10.1007/s10567-005-8809-y

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Downey CA, Chang EC (2007) Perfectionism and symptoms of eating disturbances in female college students: considering the role of negative affect and body dissatisfaction. Eat Behav 8:497–503

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Dunkley DM, Berg J, Zuroff DC (2012) The role of perfectionism in daily self-esteem, attachment, and negative affect. J Pers 80:633–663

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Rothbart M, Derryberry D, Posner M (1994) A psychobiological approach to the development of temperament. In: Bates JE, Wachs TD (eds) Temperament: individual differences at the interface of biology and behavior. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 83–116

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Rothbart MK, Posner MI (2006) Temperament, attention, and developmental psychopathology. In: Cicchetti DC, Cohen DJ (eds) Developmental psychopathology, vol 2: developmental neuroscience, 2nd edn. Wiley, New Jersey, pp 465–501

    Google Scholar 

  14. Rothbart MK, Ahadi SA, Hershey KL, Fisher P (2001) Investigations of temperament at three to seven years: the children’s’behavior questionnaire. Child Dev 72:1394–1408

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Watson D, Clark LA (1984) Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychol Bull 96:465–490

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Anthony JL, Lonigan CJ, Hooe ES, Phillips BM (2002) An affect-based, hierarchical model of temperament and its relations with internalizing symptomatology. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 31:480–490

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Crawford NA, Schrock M, Woodruff-Borden J (2011) Child internalizing symptoms: contributions of child temperament, maternal negative affect, and family functioning. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 42:53–64

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Mun EY, Fitzgerald HE, Von Eye A, Puttler LI, Zucker RA (2001) Temperamental characteristics as predictors of externalizing and internalizing child behavior problems in the contexts of high and low parental psychopathology. Infant Ment Health J 22:393–415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Bates JE, Maslin CA, Frankel KA (1985) Attachment security, mother–child interaction, and temperament as predictors of behavior-problem ratings at age three years. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 50:167–193

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Caspi A, Silva PA (1995) Temperamental qualities at age three predict personality traits in young adulthood: longitudinal evidence from a birth cohort. Child Dev 66:486–498

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Keiley MK, Lofthouse N, Bates JE, Dodge KA, Pettit GS (2003) Differential risks of covarying and pure components in mother and teacher reports of externalizing and internalizing behavior across ages 5 to 14. J Abnorm Child Psychol 31:267–283

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Joiner TE, Catanzaro SJ, Laurent J (1996) Tripartite structure of positive and negative affect, depression, and anxiety in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients. J Abnorm Psychol 105:401–409

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Brown TA, Chorpita BF, Barlow DH (1998) Structural relationships among dimensions of the DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders and dimensions of negative affect, positive affect, and autonomic arousal. J Abnorm Psychol 107:179–192

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Bouma EM, Ormel J, Verhulst FC, Oldehinkel AJ (2008) Stressful life events and depressive problems in early adolescent boys and girls: the influence of parental depression, temperament and family environment. J Affect Disord 105:185–193

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Degnan KA, Almas AN, Fox NA (2010) Temperament and the environment in the etiology of childhood anxiety. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 51:497–517. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02228.x

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Rapee RM (2002) The development and modification of temperamental risk for anxiety disorders: prevention of a lifetime of anxiety? Biol Psychiatry 52:947–957. doi:10.1016/S0006-3223(02)01572-X

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Verstraeten K, Vasey MW, Raes F, Bijttebier P (2009) Temperament and risk for depressive symptoms in adolescence: mediation by rumination and moderation by effortful control. J Abnorm Child Psychol 37:349–361

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Leon GR, Kendall PC, Garber J (1980) Depression in children: parent, teacher, and child perspectives. J Abnorm Child Psychol 8:221–235

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Rogers GM, Park J, Essex MJ, Klein MH, Silva SG, Hoyle RH et al (2009) The dysfunctional attitudes scale: psychometric properties in depressed adolescents. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 38:781–789

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Jacobs RH, Silva SG, Reinecke MA, Curry JF, Ginsburg GS, Kratochvil CJ et al (2009) Dysfunctional attitudes scale perfectionism: a predictor and partial mediator of acute treatment outcome among clinically depressed adolescents. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 38:803–813

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Flett GL, Coulter L, Hewitt PL, Nepon T (2011) Perfectionism, rumination, worry, and depressive symptoms in early adolescents. Can J Sch Psychol 26:159–176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Essau CA, Leung PW, Conradt J, Cheng H, Wong T (2008) Anxiety symptoms in Chinese and German adolescents: their relationship with early learning experiences, perfectionism, and learning motivation. Depress Anxiety 25:801–810

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. McCreary BT, Joiner TE, Schmidt NB, Ialongo NS (2004) The structure and correlates of perfectionism in African American children. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 33:313–324

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. O’C’nnor RC, Rasmussen S, Hawton K (2010) Predicting depression, anxiety and self-harm in adolescents: the role of perfectionism and acute life stress. Behav Res Ther 48:52–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Hewitt PL, Flett GL (1991) Dimensions of perfectionism in unipolar depression. J Abnorm Psychol 100:98–101

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Flett GL, Hewitt PL (1990) The child–adolescent perfectionism scale: development and association with measures of adjustment. In: Frost R (ed) Perfectionism: meaning, measurement, and relation to psychopathology. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, San Francisco, CA

  37. Huggins L, Davis MC, Rooney R, Kane R (2008) Socially prescribed and self-oriented perfectionism as predictors of depressive diagnosis in preadolescents. Aust J Guid Couns 18:182–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Kenney-Benson GA, Pomerantz EM (2005) The role of mothers’ use of control in children’s perfectionism: implications for the development of children’s depressive symptoms. J Pers 73:23–46

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Flett GL, Hewitt PL, Cheng WMW (2008) Perfectionism, distress, and irrational beliefs in high school students: analyses with an abbreviated survey of personal beliefs for adolescents. J Ration-Emot Cogn-Behav Ther 26:194–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. O’Connor RC, Dixon D, Rasmussen S (2009) The structure and temporal stability of the child and adolescent perfectionism scale. Psychol Assess 21:437–443. doi:10.1037/a0016264

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Soreni N, Streiner D, McCabe R, Bullard C, Swinson R, Greco A et al (2014) Dimensions of perfectionism in children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder. J Can Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 23:136–143

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. Flett GL, Molnar DS, Nepon T, Hewitt PL (2012) A mediational model of perfectionistic automatic thoughts and psychosomatic symptoms: the roles of negative affect and daily hassles. Pers Individ Differ 52:565–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Kobori O, Tanno Y (2005) Self-oriented perfectionism and its relationship to positive and negative affect: the mediation of positive and negative perfectionism cognitions. Cogn Ther Res 29:555–567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Affrunti NW, Woodruff-Borden J (2014) Perfectionism in pediatric anxiety and depressive disorders. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 17:299–317. doi:10.1007/s10567-014-0164-4

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Flett GL, Hewitt PL, Oliver JM, Macdonald S (2002) Perfectionism in children and their parents: a developmental analysis. In: Flett GL, Hewitt PL (eds) Perfectionism: theory, research, and treatment. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 89–132

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  46. DiBartolo PM, Varner SP (2012) How children’s cognitive and affective responses to a novel task relate to the dimensions of perfectionism. J Ration-Emot Cogn-Behav Ther 30:62–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Damian LE, Stoeber J, Negru O, Băban A (2014) Positive and negative affect in adolescents: an investigation of the 2×2 model of perfectionism. Cogn Brain Behav: Interdiscip J 18:1–16

    Google Scholar 

  48. Bouffard T, Roy M, Vezeau C (2005) Self-perceptions, temperament, socioemotional adjustment and the perceptions of parental support of chronically underachieving children. Int J Educ Res 43:215–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Simonds J, Rothbart MK (2004) The temperament in middle childhood questionnaire (TMCQ): a computerized self-report measure of temperament for ages 7–10. In: Poster presented at the occasional temperament conference, Athens, GA

  50. Flett G, Hewitt P, Boucher D, Davidson L, Munro Y (1997) The Child Adolescent Perfectionism Scale: development, validation, and association with adjustment. Unpublished Manuscript

  51. Beck JS, Beck AT, Jolly J, Steer RA (2005) Manual for the beck youth inventories for children and adolescents. The Psychological Corporation, San Antonio

    Google Scholar 

  52. Chorpita BF, Tracey SA, Brown TA, Collica TJ, Barlow DH (1997) Assessment of worry in children and adolescents: an adaptation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behav Res Ther 35:569–581. doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(96)00116-7

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Meyer TJ, Miller ML, Metzger RL, Borkovec TD (1990) Development and validation of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Behav Res Ther 28:487–495

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Pestle SL, Chorpita BF, Schiffman J (2008) Psychometric properties of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire for children in a large clinical sample. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 37:465–471

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Zhao X, Lynch JG, Chen Q (2010) Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: myths and truths about mediation analysis. J Consum Res 37:197–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Preacher KJ, Hayes AF (2008) Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behav Res Methods 40:879–891. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.3.879

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. MacKinnon DP, Lockwood CM, Hoffman JM, West SG, Sheets V (2002) A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychol Methods 7:83–104

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. West SG, Finch JF, Curran PJ (1995) Structural equation models with nonnormal variables: problems and remedies. In: Hoyle RH (ed) Structural equation modeling: concepts, issues, and applications. Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks, pp 56–75

    Google Scholar 

  59. Hu L, Bentler PM (1999) Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Struct Equ Model Multidiscip J 6:1–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Stornelli D, Flett GL, Hewitt PL (2009) Perfectionism, achievement, and affect in children: a comparison of students from gifted, arts, and regular programs. Can J Sch Psychol 24:267–283. doi:10.1177/0829573509342392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Muhtadie L, Zhou Q, Eisenberg N, Wang Y (2013) Predicting internalizing problems in Chinese children: the unique and interactive effects of parenting and child temperament. Dev Psychopathol 25:653–667

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  62. Mikolajewski AJ, Allan NP, Hart SA, Lonigan CJ, Taylor J (2013) Negative affect shares genetic and environmental influences with symptoms of childhood internalizing and externalizing disorders. J Abnorm Child Psychol 41:411–423

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  63. Soenens B, Elliot AJ, Goossens L, Vansteenkiste M, Luyten P, Duriez B (2005) The intergenerational transmission of perfectionism: parents’’sychological control as an intervening variable. J Fam Psychol 19:358–366

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Gosselin P, Langlois F, Freeston MH, Ladouceur R, Laberge M, Lemay D (2007) Cognitive variables related to worry among adolescents: avoidance strategies and faulty beliefs about worry. Behav Res Ther 45:225–233

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Newman MG, Llera SJ (2011) A novel theory of experiential avoidance in generalized anxiety disorder: a review and synthesis of research supporting a contrast avoidance model of worry. Clin Psychol Rev 31:371–382

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  66. Affrunti NW, Woodruff-Borden J (2015) The associations of executive function and temperament in a model of risk for childhood anxiety. J Child Fam Stud 24:715–724. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9881-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Leve LD, Kim HK, Pears KC (2005) Childhood temperament and family environment as predictors of internalizing and externalizing trajectories from ages 5 to 17. J Abnorm Child Psychol 33:505–520

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  68. Becker KD, Ginsburg GS, Domingues J, Tein J (2010) Maternal control behavior and locus of control: examining mechanisms in the relation between maternal anxiety disorders and anxiety symptomatology in children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 38:533–543. doi:10.1007/s10802-010-9388-z

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  69. McLaughlin KA, Nolen-Hoeksema S (2012) Interpersonal stress generation as a mechanism linking rumination to internalizing symptoms in early adolescents. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 41:584–597

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  70. Essau CA, Conradt J, Sasagawa S, Ollendick TH (2012) Prevention of anxiety symptoms in children: results from a universal school-based trial. Behav Ther 43:450–464

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  71. Mitchell JH, Newall C, Broeren S, Hudson JL (2013) The role of perfectionism in cognitive behaviour therapy outcomes for clinically anxious children. Behav Res Ther 51:547–554

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  72. Nobel R, Manassis K, Wilansky-Traynor P (2012) The role of perfectionism in relation to an intervention to reduce anxious and depressive symptoms in children. J Ration-Emot Cogn-Behav Ther 30:77–90

    Article  Google Scholar 

  73. Weems CF, Stickle TR (2012) Mediation, incremental validity, and novel intervention development: introduction to a special issue on youth anxiety and related problems. Child Youth Care Forum 41:509–515

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Egan SJ, Wade TD, Shafran R (2011) Perfectionism as a transdiagnostic process: a clinical review. Clin Psychol Rev 31:203–212

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Life Sciences Building Room 317, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA

    Nicholas W. Affrunti & Janet Woodruff-Borden

Authors
  1. Nicholas W. Affrunti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Janet Woodruff-Borden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicholas W. Affrunti.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Affrunti, N.W., Woodruff-Borden, J. Negative Affect and Child Internalizing Symptoms: The Mediating Role of Perfectionism. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 47, 358–368 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-015-0571-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-015-0571-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation