Perfectionistic Children and Adolescents: Implications for School Counselors.

Abstract

Perfectionistic children and adolescents are easy to recognize. Teachers and parents describe these children and adolescents as having incredibly neat desks, giving up recess to finish some assignment or project, complaining any time they have a collaborative group assignment, starting an art project seven times to get it just right, disappointed when they do not get perfect papers in school, and so forth (Thompson & Rudolph 2000). Traditionally, school personnel and family members have expressed concern about perfectionistic students, based on the assumption that perfectionism is a onedimensional, negative personality trait that should be eradicated. While some of the behaviors manifested in the quest for perfection can be self-defeating, many perfectionistic behaviors (like having a neat desk, turning in neat work, caring about school work, dedicated and focused) are actually academically and socially adaptive. The authors believe that it is essential to the well-being and happiness of these children and adolescents that teachers, counselors, and parents learn to recognize and acknowledge the positive components of perfectionism. It is also important to learn to intervene with these students in ways that do not undermine the productive or helpful aspects of perfectionism (i.e., high standards and the need for order), but that do address the problematic aspects of perfectionism (i.e., anxiety, extreme self-criticism, and extreme criticism of others). In this article, the authors (a) describe the current research findings related to perfectionism in adults, (b) summarize the recent literature regarding perfectionism in children and adolescents, and M describe adaptive and maladaptive traits of perfectionism as manifested in children and adolescents. The authors also make suggestions for intervention strategies for helping children and adolescents learn to capitalize on the adaptive aspects of perfectionism and remediate the maladaptive aspects of perfectionism. Recent Research On Perfectionism Perfectionism in Adults Historically mental health professionals working with adults have conceptualized perfectionism as a unidimensional and negative or maladaptive character trait (e.g., Blatt, 1995; Bums, 1980; Hollender, 1965). In thinking about clients who described themselves or were described by others as perfectionistic, counselors have usually assumed that perfectionism was at least part (and maybe the bulk) of the problem. Because of this negafive, unidimensional perception, most interventions with clients who admitted perfectionistic have traditionally revolved around curing the client of his or her perfectionism (Bums, 1980). Research based on this way of viewing perfectionism (Blatt, 1995; Flett, Hewitt, Blankstein, & O'Brien, 1991; Hewitt & Flett, 1990) has supported the premise that perfectionism has a negative impact on perfectionists. This approach seems to ignore the possibility that being a perfectionist could well be a good thing if it means having high standards, for high standards ultimately lead to high achievement (Winner, 1996, p. 215). Several recent empirical investigations into perfectionism in adults have lent credence to this more positive interpretation of perfectionism. This research has supported the concept of a multidimensional model which allows for the idea that some aspects of perfectionism can prove to be helpful, rather than harmful, to clients. Slaney, Mobley, Trippi, Ashby, and Johnson (1996) developed a measure designed to assess both the positive and negative aspects of perfectionism. They contended that, while experiencing extreme distress when one's performance did not match one's standards might be destructive and unhealthy, the holding of high personal standards and a desire for order were not necessarily negative. The results from a study by Rice, Ashby, and Slaney (1997) supported the distinction between adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism. …