University Students’ Perfectionistic Profiles: Do They Predict Achievement Goal Orientations and Coping Strategies?

The present study aimed at investigating the effect of different perfectionistic latent profiles on university students’ personal goal orientation and coping strategies. Four hundred thirty nine university students (82.5% females) from various departments (38.5% freshmen) participated in the study. Students were asked to complete anonymously three self-report questionnaires in groups in their university classes: (a) the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised was used for measuring perfectionism as a multidimensional construct, (b) the Personal Achievement Goals questionnaire for measuring achievement goal orientation (mastery orientation, performance-approach orientation, and performance-avoidance orientation), and (c) the R-COPE questionnaire for measuring adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies for everyday problems. Latent class analysis was conducted in order to create categorical perfectionistic profiles. The data support the three-group model of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists and non-perfectionists. The adaptive and maladaptive perfectionistic profiles differ in the level of discrepancy between personal standards and accomplishments and significantly predicted adaptive and maladaptive achievement motivation and coping, respectively.