An Empirical Typology of Perfectionism in Academically Talented Children

• Published in: American educational research journal Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 545 - 562
• Main Author: Parker, Wayne D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Educational Research Association 1997; SAGE Publications
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Academically Gifted; Academically gifted students; Adolescents; Children; Classification; Cluster Analysis; Conscientiousness; Educational research; Educational sciences; Gifted children; Grade 6; Methodology; Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale; Multivariate Analysis; Neuroses; Neurosis; Observation, experimentation; Parents; Perfectionism; Personality Traits; Scores; Self esteem; Statistical significance; Student Characteristics; Talent; Teaching, Learning, and Human Development; Test Results; USA; Advanced pupil; Neurosis; Evaluation; Self-Perception; Multidimensional Analysis; Secondary Education; Parents; Depression; Success; Cluster Analysis; Perception of the Child
• ISSN: 0002-8312; 1935-1011
• DOI: 10.3102/00028312034003545

A nationally gathered sample of 820 academically talented sixth graders at the Center for Talented Youth of Johns Hopkins University took the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, and scores were cluster analyzed using both hierarchical and nonhierarchical cluster analysis with cross-validation. A three-cluster solution was indicated. Students also took the Adjective Check List (Gough & Heilbrun, 1983), the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), and the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993) to determine characteristics of cluster membership. Results indicated that the cluster groups comprised a nonperfectionistic type (32.8%), a healthy perfectionistic type (41.7%), and a dysfunctional perfectionistic type (25.5%). Parent perceptions of the children were consistent with the students' self-perceptions. The construct of perfectionism was primarily associated with conscientiousness and secondarily with agreeableness and neurosis.