Investigation of students' perceptions of multidimensional perfectionism with self-esteem and stress

Abstract

Perfectionism can be considered as an indicator of the emotions of individuals in the process of reaching the best. Perfectionism is seen as a risk factor for negative emotions such as depression, anxiety, stress, and burnout. On the other hand, it is thought that the perception of perfectionism can be considered positive with some dimensions. Based on the discussions at this point, the question of whether the effects of perfectionism dimensions on the concepts that can be evaluated as positive and negative are examined in the current study. It is aimed to make inferences about the direction of perfectionism sub-dimensions. Estimations were made with structural equation models that produced stronger estimation results by taking into account measurement errors. As a result of this study, it was found that university students' perceptions of perfectionism had statistically significant effects on stress and self-esteem. At the same time, it has been shown that self-esteem is mediating for some perfectionism sub-dimensions. It was found that the four dimensions of perfectionism directly affected stress and also all dimensions directly affected self-esteem. At the same time, these findings provide evidence that the multidimensional structure rather than the one-dimensional structure of perfectionism contains more information.