Abstract
Maladaptive perfectionism has been associated with certain mental health problems. Moreover, studies suggest that the development of perfectionism can be attributed to childhood experiences and, more specifically, to parenting styles. (1) Background: The aims of the present study were first to examine the relationship of perfectionism to perceived parenting and current symptoms of depression and anxiety and, secondly, to study the effectiveness of a group CBT intervention program for high perfectionism; (2) Methods: Participants were 81 young Greek adults with relatively high scores in perfectionism. They were randomly allocated to two conditions: either the intervention group (IG; n = 40) or a non-active control group (CG; n = 41). The intervention group received a CBT intervention of 10 weekly sessions, while assessments were made in two time points for both groups; (3) Results: There was significant correlation of perfectionism with perceived parental indifference, abuse, and overcontrol as well as measures of anxiety and depression. Results showed significant decrease in perfectionism and other symptoms in the IG. Although perceived paternal indifference and abuse could predict perfectionism at pre-intervention, no pre-intervention variable could predict the perfectionism intervention outcome; (4) Conclusions: Overall, the study suggests that maladaptive perfectionism is associated with perceived negative parenting and current anxiety and depression and that a group CBT intervention can address specific dimensions of maladaptive perfectionism.
Highlights
There is a consensus that perfectionism is best understood as a multi-dimensional construct [1,2,3,4] and that the core aspects of maladaptive perfectionism generally involve high standards or striving and excessive concerns about those standards [1,5]
Having studied the above relationships, a resulting important goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a group intervention program for maladaptive perfectionism and coexisting symptomatology
A cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational design was performed at the initial phase of the study that was followed by a parallel group trial design where a perfectionismfocused cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) group intervention was compared with a no intervention concurrent control
Summary
There is a consensus that perfectionism is best understood as a multi-dimensional construct [1,2,3,4] and that the core aspects of maladaptive perfectionism generally involve high standards or striving and excessive concerns about those standards [1,5]. The most empirical work in the area of parenting was done by Baumrind [14,15] and was extended by Maccoby [16]. According to this approach, there are four conceptual types of parenting (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, neglectful) that vary according to two dimensions: demandingness (standards and demands set by parents) and responsiveness (parents’ responses to children) [14,15,16].
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