Perfectionistic profiles and well-being in general upper secondary education: The moderating role of perceived support

This study used a person-oriented approach to investigate 1) what kinds of perfectionistic profiles can be identified among general upper secondary students (N = 2005), and 2) whether perceived support from various sources (i.e., teacher, school psychologist, family, friends) moderates the links between perfectionistic profiles and students’ well-being (i.e., engagement, exhaustion, depressive symptoms, anxiety). Students were classified using latent profile analysis, based on different patterns of perfectionistic strivings and concerns. We identified four profiles: concerned (low strivings and high concerns), ambitious (high strivings and low concerns), perfectionists (high strivings and high concerns), and non-perfectionists (low strivings and low concerns). Regarding profile differences in well-being, ambitious students were the most engaged and concerned were the least engaged in their studies, whereas perfectionists, followed by concerned, expressed the highest exhaustion, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. Friends’ support showed the most prominent interactive effects with the perfectionistic profiles. When students received enough support from family and friends, ambitious expectedly showed adaptive well-being, while perfectionists still expressed more depressive symptoms. Interestingly, when students did not receive support from family or friends despite needing it, perfectionists and ambitious did not differ in their depressive symptoms, highlighting the importance of support. These findings indicate that it is important to recognise and support students with different perfectionistic tendencies for reducing students’ emotional distress.