Using profile analysis and ROC curves to examine the relationship between perfectionism and academic self-efficacy in secondary school students

This study attempts to clarify the relationship between multidimensional perfectionism and academic self-efficacy in adolescents using a dual approach: variable-oriented and person-oriented. The study sample consisted of 1375 students aged 15 to 18 (M = 16.36, SD = 1.04). The Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale and the Perceived Self-Efficacy in Academic Situations Scale were used. Four perfectionist profiles were obtained from a combination of socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) and self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) based on the Latent Profile Analysis: very low perfectionism, low perfectionism, high perfectionism, and moderate perfectionism. The high perfectionism group scored significantly higher on academic self-efficacy than the other groups. Furthermore, post-hoc comparisons revealed statistically significant differences in academic self-efficacy between all profiles, with moderate to large effect sizes, with the exception of the very low and low perfectionism groups. Logistic regressions demonstrated that SOP and SPP positively and significantly predicted high scores on academic self-efficacy. Upon analysis of the ROC curves, it was found that both SOP and SPP display good and similar discriminative ability, correctly classifying 79% and 76% of the participants with and without high academic self-efficacy levels, respectively. Possible explanations and implications for Educational Psychology are discussed.