Perfectionism in Gifted Students and Their Non-Identified Peers: Links to Social Adjustment and Relationships at School

Abstract

Perfectionism has received a great deal of attention within the field of gifted education. Research in this area spans four decades and a growing number of articles, yet studies directly comparing perfectionism levels in gifted individuals with the general population remain limited. This article reports two studies investigating differences between gifted students and their non-identified peers across two measures of perfectionism. Study 1 examined the extent to which students’ ( N = 1,182) perfectionistic cognitions differed by gifted status and school level (middle vs. high school). Gifted high school students reported higher levels of perfectionistic cognitions than their same-age peers, whereas no differences were observed in middle school. Study 2, with a similar sample ( N = 646), used Hewitt and Flett’s multidimensional model to compare self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism and to explore their associations with social adjustment and relationships with teachers and peers. The only significant difference was in self-oriented perfectionism, with gifted students scoring higher than their peers. Associations between perfectionism dimensions and students’ social adjustment and school relationships were largely independent of giftedness.