Child Perfectionism

una revisión de la literatura

Abstract

Although it has been little studied, the evidence has revealed the role of perfectionism in the mental health problems of children and adolescents. This article constitutes a theoretical review on child perfectionism. It consists of three parts: the first presents - in successive order of appearance - the instruments used to evaluate perfectionism in this population, including for each of them its description (ie, items, dimensions, response format), process of construction, psychometric properties (ie, validity and reliability) and other additional data (eg, protocol availability and adaptations if any); in the second part, the findings and conclusions of the most relevant research carried out within each framework of measurement of child perfectionism are presented; In the third and last part, the general and specific strategies for the therapeutic approach of insane perfectionism in children are reviewed. This work provides, in our opinion, a current, clear and quite complete picture - especially in the case of studies in the Spanish language - about the state of knowledge regarding the subject under consideration.