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Perfectionism, Distress, and Irrational Beliefs in High School Students: Analyses with an Abbreviated Survey of Personal Beliefs for Adolescents

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Abstract

The current study examined the associations between dimensions of perfectionism and irrational beliefs in an adolescent sample. In addition, we tested the association between psychological distress and irrational beliefs in adolescents and we evaluated the feasibility of creating a modified version of the Survey of Personal Beliefs for use with adolescents. A sample of 250 adolescents (108 males, 142 females) completed the Child-Adolescent Perfectionism Scale, the Survey of Personal Beliefs, and the CES-D Depression Scale. Initial psychometric analyses yielded an abbreviated 30-item Survey of Personal Beliefs with adequate internal consistency for four of the five subscales. Our results showed that self-oriented perfectionism was associated significantly with all five irrational belief subscales, while the associations between socially prescribed perfectionism and irrational belief subscales were much smaller in magnitude. Self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism, and irrational beliefs were all associated significantly with elevated distress among adolescents, and irrational beliefs predicted unique variance in distress, over and above the variance attributable to the trait perfectionism dimensions. The findings confirmed the association between perfectionism and irrational beliefs and their respective roles in psychological distress among adolescents.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported, in part, by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to the authors. Gordon Flett was supported by a Canada Research Chair in Personality and Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M3J 1P3

    Gordon L. Flett & Wing Man Winnie Cheng

  2. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z4

    Paul L. Hewitt

Authors
  1. Gordon L. Flett
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  2. Paul L. Hewitt
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  3. Wing Man Winnie Cheng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gordon L. Flett.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Items Retained in 30-item Survey of Personal Beliefs

Self-Directed Shoulds

When I make a mistake, I often tell myself, “I shouldn’t have done that.” (original item #2)

I absolutely should not have made certain obvious mistakes in my life (original item #12)

I definitely have to do a good job on all things I decide to do (original item #27)

I have to make absolutely sure that everything is going well in important areas of my life (original item #32)

I clearly should not make some of the mistakes I make (original item #37)

There are some good reasons why I must not make errors at school or at work (original item #47)

Other-Directed Shoulds

Absolutely, people must obey the law (original item #3)

Children must eventually learn to live up to their obligations (original item #18)

I believe that people definitely should not behave poorly in public (original item #23)

If it’s important to me, close friends should want to do the favors I ask of them (original item #33)

There are clearly some things that other people must not do (original item #43)

Absolutely, my friends and family should treat me better than they sometimes do (original item #48)

Awfulizing

Some situations in life are truly terrible (original item #6)

The way some children behave is just awful (original item #11)

There are times when awful things happen (original item #16)

It would be terrible if I could not succeed at pleasing the people I love (original item #21)

It would be awful if someone I love developed serious mental problems, and had to be hospitalized (original item #31)

It would be terrible if I totally failed in school or in work (original item #41)

Low Frustration Tolerance

There is nothing that I “can’t stand” (reverse keyed; original item #4)

There are some things I just can’t stand (original item #9)

Sometimes I just can’t tolerate my poor achievement in school or at work (original item #19)

I can’t stand some of the things that have been done by my friends or members of my family (original item #29)

It’s unbearable when lots and lots of things go wrong (original item #39)

There are some things about people at work (or in school) that I just can’t stand (original item #44)

Self-Worth

Being ignored, or being socially awkward at a party would reduce my sense of self-worth (original item #5)

The approval or disapproval of my friends or family does not affect my self-worth (reverse-keyed, original item #25)

The way others evaluate me (friends, supervisors, teachers) is very important in determining the way

I rate myself (original item #35)

I often rate myself based upon my success at work or school, or upon my social achievements (original item #40)

Serious emotional or legal problems would lower my sense of self-worth (original item #45)

It is important to teach children that they can become “good boys” and “good girls” by performing well in school and earning the approval of their parents (original item #50)

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Flett, G.L., Hewitt, P.L. & Cheng, W.M.W. Perfectionism, Distress, and Irrational Beliefs in High School Students: Analyses with an Abbreviated Survey of Personal Beliefs for Adolescents. J Rat-Emo Cognitive-Behav Ther 26, 194–205 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-007-0066-1

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