The relationships between perfectionism and aggression among adolescents

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between perfectionism and aggression in a sample of 445 high school students. The Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R; Slaney, Rice, Mobley, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001) and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ; Buss & Perry, 1992) were used for data collection. The sub dimensions of the APS-R were high standards, order (adaptive perfectionism), and discrepancy (maladaptive perfectionism). The sub dimensions of the BPAQ were anger, physical aggression, hostility and verbal aggression. As hypothesized, the regression analyses revealed that, discrepancy was the positive predictor of anger, physical aggression and hostility while order was the negative predictor of anger, physical and verbal aggression. As predicted, high standards were found to be the negative predictor of hostility. However, unexpectedly, high standards were found to be the positive predictor of verbal aggression