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Personal identity formation is a key developmental task of adolescence, with the educational domain being a core life domain. Parents are gatekeepers of adolescent career development but their role in facilitating educational identity formation still needs to be uncovered. The present study investigated developmental trajectories of educational identity processes (commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) across two academic years. Educational identity processes, parental socio-economic status, and parental career-related behaviors (support, interference, lack of engagement) were appraised through a four-wave longitudinal study with 5- to 6-month intervals (N = 744; M a ge = 15.2 years, 55% girls). Results of the latent class growth analysis revealed five educational identity trajectories (i.e., Undifferentiated, Searching moratorium, Foreclosed, Diffusion, and Achievement). Commitment and in-depth exploration processes were stable for all five trajectories. The undifferentiated trajectory (medium stable levels for all identity processes) was the most prevalent. Parental socio-economic status and perceived parental support correlated positively with achievement and searching moratorium trajectories and negatively with diffused and undifferentiated trajectories. Foreclosed adolescents perceived their parents as the most engaged. Trajectories characterized by high reconsideration of commitment also correlated the most with perceived parental interference. The results bring forward valuable insights into the role parents play in their adolescents' educational identity development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfectionism has been shown to predict individual differences in achievement goal orientations in university students, but research on perfectionism and goal orientations in school students is still very limited. Investigating 584 adolescent school students in a cross-sectional correlational design, the present study examined how self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted students' goal orientations. Multiple regression analyses showed that, when the overlap between the different goal orientations was controlled for, self-oriented perfectionism positively predicted mastery-approach and mastery-avoidance goal orientations whereas socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted performance-approach orientation. The present findings indicate that perfectionism predicts individual differences in adolescent school students' achievement goal orientations, but different forms of perfectionism are associated with different patterns of goal orientations.

Objective: Education has a strong impact on adolescent development. This study investigated the complex longitudinal associations between educational identity processes, academic achievement, and perfectionism. Method: The study used a 4‐wave design (N = 744 adolescents, Mage = 15.2 years, 55% girls). Results: Results showed that self‐oriented perfectionism mediated the longitudinal relation between academic achievement and educational commitment, whereas educational commitment mediated the longitudinal relation between self‐oriented perfectionism and academic achievement. Also, a unidirectional positive direct link from educational in‐depth exploration to socially prescribed perfectionism was found, while self‐oriented perfectionism mediated the positive relationship between academic achievement and exploration. Finally, higher academic achievement led to decreases in educational reconsideration of commitment, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted increases in educational reconsideration of commitment and decreases in academic achievement. Conclusions: These findings bring forward the intricate and possibly sabotaging links between educational identity processes, academic achievement, and perfectionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perfectionism is a pervasive and prevalent personality disposition with high implications for psychological maladjustment. Adolescence represents a particularly relevant period for the development of perfectionism, and perceived parental behaviors have been shown to play an important part. Yet, so far only few longitudinal studies have investigated the role of risk and protective parental behaviors in the development of perfectionism in adolescents. Examining a sample of 744 adolescents (M age = 15.2 years), the present study investigated developmental trajectories of self-oriented, socially prescribed, and other-oriented perfectionism over four waves spaced five to six months apart. Results of growth mixture modeling showed that self-oriented perfectionism followed three developmental trajectories (low and decreasing; medium and decreasing; high and stable) as did socially prescribed perfectionism (low and stable; medium and increasing; high and stable). Other-oriented perfectionism showed four developmental trajectories (low and decreasing; low and stable; high and stable; high and increasing). Significant differences were observed between groups regarding all investigated perceived parental behaviors (psychological control, behavioral control, responsiveness, and autonomy support). Similarities and differences between the development of each form of perfectionism and the role of each parental behavior as well as implications of these findings for the understanding of the development of perfectionism in adolescence are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Although perfectionism has been proposed to be a risk factor for the development of anxiety, research on perfectionism and anxiety symptoms in adolescents is scarce and inconclusive. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the two higher-order dimensions of perfectionism - perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns - predict the development and maintenance of anxiety symptoms. An additional aim of the present study was to examine potential reciprocal effects of anxiety symptoms predicting increases in perfectionism.Design: The study used a longitudinal design with three waves spaced 4-5 months apart.Methods: A non-clinical sample of 489 adolescents aged 12-19 years completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire.Results: As expected, results showed a positive effect from perfectionistic concerns to anxiety symptoms, but the effect was restricted to middle-to-late adolescents (16-19 years old): Perfectionistic concerns predicted longitudinal increases in adolescents' anxiety symptoms, whereas perfectionistic strivings did not. Furthermore, anxiety symptoms did not predict increases in perfectionism.Conclusions: Implications for the understanding of the relationship between perfectionism and anxiety symptoms are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although perfectionism is a prominent personality disposition, only a few longitudinal studies have investigated how perfectionism develops. Theoretical models and qualitative studies have posited that academic success is a developmental antecedent of perfectionism. Yet, quantitative studies tend to interpret the cross-sectional relationships as academic success being an outcome of perfectionism. In light of these gaps in the literature, the present study was the first to investigate the longitudinal relationships between perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, academic achievement, and academic efficacy by examining academic success as an antecedent of perfectionism., Method: The study examined 487 adolescents (aged 12-19 years, 54% female) using a cross-lagged longitudinal design with three time points spaced 4-5 months apart., Results: Results showed that academic achievement predicted relative increases in both perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, even when including academic efficacy. In addition, academic efficacy predicted relative increases in perfectionistic strivings., Conclusions: This is the first study to show that academic achievement is a common factor in the development of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns, whereas academic efficacy plays a role only in the development of perfectionistic strivings. Implications of the findings for the development of perfectionism are discussed., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)