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Cognitive Errors as Predictors of Adaptive and Maladaptive Perfectionism in Children

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Abstract

Cognitive distortions such as dichotomous evaluation of performance, selectively focusing on perceived failures, and discounting successes are proposed to be key maintaining mechanisms in clinical perfectionism, but no existing research has investigated the relationship between perfectionism and cognitive errors in children. The current study assessed the associations between dimensions of perfectionism as assessed by the Adaptive/Maladaptive Perfectionism Scale (AMPS) and children’s cognitive errors controlling for negative and positive affect to provide information about cognitive features associated with perfectionism in children and construct-related evidence for the AMPS. A non-clinical sample of 204 children completed the AMPS, the Children’s Negative Cognitive Errors Questionnaire, and measures of positive and negative affect. The AMPS sensitivity to mistakes scale was correlated robustly with catastrophizing, overgeneralization, personalizing, and selective abstraction. Cognitive errors were significant predictors of maladaptive perfectionism even after controlling for negative affect. However, cognitive errors did not predict adaptive perfectionism after controlling for positive affect. These findings highlight the role of negative thinking styles in maladaptive perfectionism in children and point to the potential usefulness of interventions that focus jointly on maladaptive perfectionism and negative cognitive styles.

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by a Student Grant from the Research Centre for Applied Psychology (ReCAP), Curtin University of Technology, awarded to Nicole Wosinski. Nicole Wosinski completed her Bachelor of Psychology Honours thesis under the supervision of Melissa Davis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, G.P.O. Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia

    Melissa C. Davis & Nicole L. Wosinski

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  1. Melissa C. Davis
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  2. Nicole L. Wosinski
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Correspondence to Melissa C. Davis.

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Davis, M.C., Wosinski, N.L. Cognitive Errors as Predictors of Adaptive and Maladaptive Perfectionism in Children. J Rat-Emo Cognitive-Behav Ther 30, 105–117 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-011-0129-1

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