Socially prescribed perfectionism and affectivity in Spanish child population

This study aims to analyze the relationship between Socially Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP) and affect during childhood. A sample of 804 students aged between 8 and 11 years old (M=9.57; SD=1.12), as well as the SPP subscale of the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale and the 10-Item Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children, which assess the Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA), were employed. The mean scores in PA and NA between students with high and low levels of SPP were compared. Students with high SPP significantly scored higher than their peers with low SPP, both in PA and NA. The effect magnitude of the found differences was small. Accordingly, the results of the logistic regression analysis revealed that both affective dimensions predicted positively and significantly high scores in SPP with Odd Ratio values of 1.08 and 1.05, respectively, for PA and NA. The results do not match the previous empirical evidence in adult and adolescent population. This implies that the consequences of considering the environment as demanding of perfectionism does not have the same consequences in childhood than in later ages.