Perfectionism and Self‐Development: Implications for College Adjustment

Cluster analyses supported the existence of 2 groups of perfectionists (labeled “adaptive” and “mala daptive”) and a group of non perfectionists in a sample (N = 312) of college students. Maladaptive perfectionists evidenced the poorest adjustment of all 3 groups. Adaptive perfectionists and nonperfectionists generally evidenced comparable aspects of emotional adjustment and academic integration. No differences between groups were observed in cumulative grade point average. Adaptive and mal‐adaptive perfectionists reported disruptions in self‐development. Differences between the perfectionist groups suggested that the roles of idealized parental images in self‐development might be important sorting points for adaptive or maladaptive trajectories toward perfectionism.