Abstract
The present study analyzed the psychometric properties of a Spanish translation of the child–adolescent perfectionism scale (CAPS-S), as well as its factorial invariance and latent means differences across sex and age. A sample of 1809 Spanish students of Primary Education, aged between 8 and 11 (Mage = 9.53, SD = 1.11), was used. Confirmatory factor analyses and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were applied to examine the factor structure of the CAPS-S. The results revealed that a model made up of 13 items structured in 3 factors—Self-Oriented Perfectionism-Striving (SOP-Striving), Self-Oriented Perfectionism-Critical (SOP-Critical), and Socially Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP)—showed a better fit than any of the previously tested models, and it was invariant across sex and age. SOP-Striving did not significantly correlate with school anxiety and aggression, whereas significant and positive correlations were found in the case of SOP-Critical and SPP. The levels of reliability and stability of the scale were ω = 0.91, 0.74, 0.73, and 0.80, and rxx = 0.73, 0.62, 0.73, and 0.74, for the total CAPS-S and for the SOP-Striving, SOP-Critical, and SPP dimensions, respectively. Analysis of latent means differences revealed that boys scored significantly higher than girls in SOP-Critical. The 9-year-olds scored significantly lower in SPP than their 8-year-old peers. Conversely, 11-year-olds scored higher in SOP-Critical than 8-year-olds. In addition, 10- and 11-year-olds scored higher than their 9-year-old peers. The CAPS-S presented in this research is a reliable and valid instrument to assess perfectionism in Spanish child population.
Highlights
Perfectionism is “a personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards of performance accompanied by overly critical evaluations of one’s behavior” [1]
Out of the various models of the child and adolescent perfectionism scale (CAPS) structure found by prior research, it is observed that the proposals of McCreary et al [20] and O’Connor et al [22], consisting of 14 items structured in 3 dimensions, had the best fit to the data
Despite the differences found in Socially Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP) between 8- and 9-year-olds, the results suggest that neither this dimension nor the Self-Oriented Perfectionism (SOP)-Striving dimension substantially change with age, compared to the levels experienced, and this is consistent with prior literature that notes the high stability of perfectionism (e.g. [43,44,45])
Summary
Perfectionism is “a personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards of performance accompanied by overly critical evaluations of one’s behavior” [1]. Research has diverse measures intended to assess multidimensional perfectionism in child and adolescent population: the child and adolescent perfectionism scale (CAPS) [9,10], the adaptive/maladaptive perfectionism scale (AMPS) [11,12], the scale of medición del perfeccionismo. Brain Sci. 2019, 9, 310 infantil (MPI; measurement of child perfectionism) [7], the inventario de perfeccionismo infantil (IPI; inventory of child perfectionism) [13], and the perfectionistic self-presentation scale—junior form (SPPS-JR) [14], this last scale evaluates a specific dimension of perfectionism: self-presentation. The MPI and the IPI were developed with a Spanish-speaking population Taking into account their theoretical postulates, except for the AMPS, these scales are based on a conception of perfectionism as a harmful trait for health. The IPI was created from the merging and adaptation to child language of the items that make up the multidimensional perfectionism scale (MPS) [15] and the AMPS [11,12]
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