Distinct roles of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism in Chinese adolescent students' achievement goals, classroom affect, and academic achievement

Abstract

We investigated the reasons and processes through which self-oriented perfectionism and socially prescribed perfectionism demonstrate different predictive utilities in relation to adolescent students' achievement goals, classroom affect, and academic achievement in math and English. Results based on a group of 542 Chinese middle school students revealed that self-oriented perfectionism was closely related to both mastery-approach and performance-approach goals as well as positive classroom affect. In contrast, socially prescribed perfectionism was closely related to performance-avoidance goals and negative classroom affect. Moreover, achievement goals largely mediated the predictive paths between the two types of perfectionism and academic outcomes. The findings of the present study highlight the importance of recognizing the multidimensionality of perfectionism in understanding students' academic motivation and educational outcomes.