TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gäde, Jana Caroline
A1  - Schermelleh-Engel, Karin
A1  - Klein, Andreas G.
T1  - Disentangling the common variance of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns : a bifactor model of perfectionism
T2  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - Perfectionism nowadays is frequently understood as a multidimensional personality trait with two higher-order dimensions of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. While perfectionistic concerns are robustly found to correlate with negative outcomes and psychological malfunctioning, findings concerning the outcomes of perfectionistic strivings are inconsistent. There is evidence that perfectionistic strivings relate to psychological maladjustment on the one hand but to positive outcomes on the other hand as well. Moreover, perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns frequently showed substantial overlap. These inconsistencies of differential relations and the substantial overlap of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns raise questions concerning the factorial structure of perfectionism and the meaning of its dimensions. In this study, several bifactor models were applied to disentangle the common variance of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns at the item level using Hill et al.’s (2004) Perfectionism Inventory (PI). The PI measures a broad range of perfectionism dimensions by four perfectionistic strivings and four perfectionistic concerns subscales. The bifactor-(S – 1) model with one general factor defined by concern over mistakes as the reference facet, four specific perfectionistic strivings factors, and three specific perfectionistic concerns factors showed acceptable fit. The results revealed a clear separation between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, as the general factor represented concern over mistakes, while the perfectionistic strivings factors each explained a substantial amount of reliable variance independent of the general factor. As a result, factor scores of the specific perfectionistic strivings factors and the general factor had differential relationships with achievement motivation, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and self-efficacy that met with theoretical expectations, while results for manifest subscale scores were ambiguous. Our results question the existence of reliable sub-constructs of perfectionistic concerns independent of the general factor when defined by concern over mistakes.
KW  - Perfectionism
KW  - Perfectionism Inventory
KW  - perfectionistic strivings
KW  - perfectionistic concerns
KW  - bifactor model
KW  - confirmatory factor analysis
KW  - construct validation
Y1  - 2017
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/45172
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-451721
SN  - 1664-1078
N1  - Copyright © 2017 Gäde, Schermelleh-Engel and Klein. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
VL  - 8
IS  - Art. 160
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -