Elsevier

Journal of Affective Disorders

Volume 283, 15 March 2021, Pages 293-301
Journal of Affective Disorders

Research paper
Latent profile analysis of impulsivity and perfectionism dimensions and associations with psychiatric symptoms

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.01.076Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Half of participants exhibited high levels of both impulsivity and perfectionism.

  • The high impulsivity/perfectionism class scored high across psychopathology.

  • The elevated perfectionism class scored high across internalizing disorders.

  • The elevated impulsivity class scored high across externalizing disorders.

  • Impulsivity/perfectionism profiles differed based on gender and age.

Abstract

Background. Impulsivity and perfectionism are transdiagnostic personality factors that have been studied extensively and shown to relate to externalizing and internalizing pathology respectively. Typically, these personality factors are antithesized, with impulsivity characterized by lack of control and perfectionism characterized by rigid overcontrol. Methods. The current study (N = 1,353 undergraduate students) used latent profile analysis to identify subgroups based on impulsivity and perfectionism dimensions and tested the relations of these subgroups with the symptomatology of ten prevalent types of psychopathology (depression, worry, social anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder inattentive subtype, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder impulsive-hyperactive subtype, alcohol use, obsessive-compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, restrictive eating pathology, and binge eating pathology). Results. The latent profile analysis identified four meaningful subgroups: high perfectionism, high impulsivity, combined impulsivity and perfectionism, and low impulsivity and perfectionism. The combined group was the most prevalent, comprising almost half of the sample. Further, the perfectionism group had the highest scores for obsessive-compulsive disorder, worry, and restrictive eating pathology, the impulsivity group had the highest scores for alcohol use disorder, and the combined group had the highest or second-highest scores across all types of psychopathology. Limitations. Limitations include the undergraduate sample, self-report, cross-sectional study design, and high bivariate residuals. Conclusions. These findings suggest impulsivity and perfectionism can co-occur. Further, the co-occurrence of these personality traits may heighten risk for psychopathology and help explain comorbidity across internalizing and externalizing disorders. Future research should continue to investigate the presentation, prevalence, and treatment for individuals high in both perfectionism and impulsivity.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 1,353 students recruited via SONA, an online research pool of students enrolled in an undergraduate psychology class at a midwestern university. Students were consented and completed questionnaires online at one timepoint. Participants were compensated with class credit or extra credit. See Table 1 for a breakdown of participant demographics and self-report clinical diagnoses.

Predictor variables

The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS-P). The UPPS-P (Whiteside and Lynam, 2001) is a 59-item

Descriptive statistics

Many individuals in this sample endorsed symptoms above recommended clinical cut-off scores across forms of psychopathology. The least endorsed symptom was social phobia, with 17.9% of the sample scoring above the recommended clinical cut-off, and the most endorsed was worry, with 83.4% of the sample endorsing moderate to high worry. See Table 2 for the frequency of participants scoring in the clinical range for the other measures, as well as the mean, standard deviation, and range for all

Discussion

This study classified meaningful subgroups of a large undergraduate sample using impulsivity and perfectionism dimensions. We also tested whether subgroups showed differential associations with ten domains of psychopathology. In line with our first hypothesis regarding class identification, we identified low impulsivity/perfectionism, high impulsivity, and high perfectionism groups. Additionally, a group high on both impulsivity and perfectionism was identified. Consistent with our second

Conclusions

The current study represents an important first step for understanding the complex interplay of perfectionism and impulsivity on psychopathology. The results of the LPA identified four distinct subgroups in our undergraduate sample: high perfectionism, high impulsivity, high perfectionism/impulsivity, and low perfectionism/impulsivity. The high perfectionism/impulsivity group comprised half the sample and was associated with high scores across both internalizing and externalizing

Author statement

All authors made substantial contributions to study design and manuscript formulation and approved the current draft of the manuscript for submission. CC was involved in conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, writing - original draft, and writing -review and editing. ZBC was involved in formal analysis, writing - original draft, and visualization. RAH was involved in conceptualization and writing - original draft. AMLO was involved in writing -  original draft. JED was involved with

Declaration of Competing Interest

Authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Acknowledgments

There are no acknowledgments for this manuscript.

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    This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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