Profiles of Perfectionism and Their Relations to Task Disengagement, Test Anxiety, and Depression in South Korean High School Students: The Mediating Role of Achievement Goals

Abstract

This study examined the profiles of 437 South Korean high school students, defined by their scores on four subscales of perfectionism (i.e., organisation, personal standards, concern for mistakes, and doubts about actions) from a person-centered perspective. We then assessed the mean differences across class memberships in the levels of task disengagement, test anxiety, and depression. Latent profile analysis identified four distinct profiles of individuals: non-perfectionist, average-mixed perfectionist, adaptive perfectionist, and high-mixed perfectionist. Adaptive perfectionists exhibited the most adaptive features across academic and psychological indicators, whereas high-mixed perfectionists exhibited the most maladaptive features. Compared with adaptive perfectionists, non-perfectionists and average-mixed perfectionists pursued mastery goals to a lesser extent, leading to increased task disengagement and depression. Implications for the role of mastery goals in designing interventions to support students' efforts to engage in tasks and decrease test anxiety and depression were suggested. Directions for future research were also discussed.