Adverse Childhood Experiences, Multidimensional Perfectionism, and Stress in Young Adults: A Person-Centered Perspective

Abstract

The following manuscript addresses adverse childhood experiences as they relate to perfectionism and perceived stress in young adults. The authors examined adverse childhood experiences and their association with perfectionism and perceived stress in a sample of 481 university students. Latent profile analysis based on measures of perfectionism supported a three-class model made up of adaptive perfectionists, maladaptive perfectionists, and non-perfectionists. Discriminant analysis suggested childhood abuse and neglect are important predictors of perfectionism profile membership. Lastly, among these groups, the authors found significant differences in perceived stress, with adaptive perfectionists reporting the lowest level of perceived stress, followed by non-perfectionists and maladaptive perfectionists. Implications for mental health counselors and future research are provided.