RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Researchers have called for an approach that examines the conditions under which perfectionistic strivings (PS) may be beneficial or detrimental to psychological functioning. We adopted a self-regulation perspective and tested whether individual differences in self-regulation (procrastination, emotion regulation) moderate PS's relationships with achievement and well-being in an academic/work-related achievement context. METHOD: A sample of 183 preservice teachers participated in a study that combined "traditional" longitudinal assessment (six performance situations over a 9-month period) with repeated ambulatory assessment (measuring well-being, procrastination, and emotion regulation during a total of 910 preparation phases that preceded performance situations). RESULTS: Mean levels of achievement, well-being, and emotion regulation were found to be stable over time, whereas procrastination decreased on average across preparation phases. Results from latent variable interaction models indicated that individual differences in intraindividual change in procrastination over time moderated the relationship between PS and well-being (but not achievement) in the expected direction: The less individuals decreased in procrastination over time, the more negative the relationship between PS and well-being was. Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence of a moderating effect of emotion regulation. CONCLUSION: The study contributes to a nuanced perspective on the adaptiveness of PS.
RESUMEN
Most research exploring the interplay between context and adolescent separation and detachment has focused on the family; in contrast, this investigation directs its attention outside of the family to peers. Utilizing a latent variable approach for modeling interactions and incorporating reports of behavioral adjustment from 14-year-old adolescents (N = 190) and their mothers, we examine how separation and detachment relate to adolescent peer relationships, and whether peer relationships moderate how separation and detachment relate to adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Positive peer relationships were both associated with lower detachment and sharply attenuated relations between detachment and higher adolescent internalizing and externalizing. Separation from parents was unrelated to peer relationships, and regardless of whether peer relationships were positive, separation was not related to adolescent internalizing and externalizing. We integrate these findings with those from family-focused investigations and discuss their substantive and clinical implications.