title: Positive and negative perfectionism and their relationship with anxiety and depression in Iranian school students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although many studies have investigated the relationship between perfectionism, anxiety, and depression among the adults, little is known about the manifestations of perfectionism among schoolage youths. This study has investigated this relationship in an Iranian sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using multistage cluster random sampling, 793 Iranian school students in 2007 were studied. Data of demographic characteristics, children's depression inventory, revised children's manifest anxiety scale, and the positive and negative perfectionism scales were obtained using questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicated that both aspects of perfectionism are associated with depression and anxiety. Negative and positive perfectionism have positive and negative associations, respectively, with depression and anxiety. The interaction of anxiety and depression with perfectionism reveals that depression is in association with lower scores of positive perfectionism, whereas in students with higher scores of negative perfectionism, the anxiety scores are also higher. Moreover, the accompaniment of anxiety with depression is in association with relatively lower levels of negative perfectionism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It was concluded that negative perfectionism is a risk factor for both depression and anxiety, while positive perfectionism is a protective factor. However, the interventions which encourage the positive aspects of perfectionism and decrease its negative aspects may be able to diminish psychopathological subsequence.
authors: Assistant Professor, Behavioral Science Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors: Hamid
authors: H
authors: Afshar
authors: Hamidreza
authors: H
authors: Roohafza
authors: Masoumeh
authors: M
authors: Sadeghi
authors: Alireza
authors: A
authors: Saadaty
authors: Mehrdad
authors: M
authors: Salehi
authors: Masoud
authors: M
authors: Motamedi
authors: Mohammad
authors: M
authors: Matinpour
authors: Homayoun Naji
authors: HN
authors: Isfahani
authors: Ghorbanali
authors: G
authors: Asadollahi