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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1580642
Other-oriented perfectionism in adolescents: Differences in internalizing and externalizing problems, as well as in prosocial behavior
Provisionally accepted- University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
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The scientific evidence has demonstrated that other-oriented perfectionism is negatively related to internalizing and externalizing problems only in adults. However, there is a disagreement about how this perfectionistic dimension is associated with prosocial behavior in adults and adolescents. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge about how other-oriented perfectionism is associated with those variables in youth population. For this reason, the aims of this study were to: (1) examine differences in internalizing and externalizing problems, as well as prosocial behavior, between students with high and low levels of other-oriented perfectionism; and (2) determine the likelihood of exhibiting high levels of these indexes based on perfectionism scores. 681 students aged 12 to 16 (M = 14.14, SD = 1.31), completed the Other-Oriented Perfectionism Subscale-Junior Form and the Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire. Regarding the results, first, the three indexes (i.e., internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior) were calculated as the mean of the subscales that composed each index. After obtaining the total scores of internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior, the scores of each were dichotomized into high and low scores. Student's t-test reported significant differences between students with high and low scores on the three indexes based on the other-oriented perfectionism dimension. Furthermore, the logistic regression analysis reported that the probability of exhibiting a high level of internalizing and externalizing problems increases for each point increase in other-oriented perfectionism. Contrarily, the likelihood of displaying a high index of prosocial behavior decreases for each point increase in this perfectionistic dimension. The results suggest the maladaptive role of otheroriented perfectionism, underscoring the need for further research on how this perfectionistic dimension impacts the educational environment.
Keywords: Other-Oriented Perfectionism1, Internalizing problems, Externalizing problems3, Prosocial Behavior, adolescents5, Logistic Regressions6
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fuster, Pérez-Marco and Vicent. 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.
* Correspondence: Maria Vicent, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
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