Somatic symptoms and subjetive health complaints as reasons for school absenteeism: differences in levels of perfectionism and their predictive value
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Theoretical studies suggest that perfectionism is related to school attendance problems, since trying to be perfect and avoid failure may reinforce the reluctance to attend school. Although previous studies have analysed the relationship between perfectionism and reasons for school absenteeism, such as somatic symptoms or subjective complaints, there is still a need to know the relationship between these variables using specific instruments designed to assess both perfectionism and reasons for school absenteeism in a child and adolescent population. Therefore, the objectives of this study were: (1) To examine the differences in the levels of socially prescribed perfectionism, critical self-oriented perfectionism and effortful self-oriented perfectionism according to students with high and low scores on somatic symptoms and subjective health complaints as reasons for school absence; (2) To determine the probability of presenting high levels of reasons for school absence based on scores on the perfectionist dimensions. 679 adolescents completed the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale and the Assessing Reasons for School Non-Attendance. 679 adolescents completed the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale and the Assessing Reasons for School Non-Attendance. Sum scores for somatic symptoms and subjective complaints were dichotomized as reasons for school nonattendance in high-scoring and low-scoring students. Student’s t -test reported significant differences between students with high and low scores in somatic symptoms and subjective complaints in the case of socially prescribed perfectionism and critical self-oriented -critical. In addition, logistic regression analysis revealed that both perfectionistic dimensions were predictive of high levels of somatic symptoms and subjective complaints as reasons for school absenteeism. The results suggest that multidimensional perfectionism is maladaptive in terms of school attendance problems.
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
How to Cite
References
Berlanga, V. y Vilà-Baños, R. (2014). Cómo obtener un modelo de regresión logística binaria con SPSS. REFIRE: Revista de Innovació i Recerca en Educació , 7 (2), 105-118.
Bonvanie, I. J., Rosmalen, J. G., van Rhede van der Kloot, C. M., Oldehinkel, A. J. y Janssens, K. A. (2015). Short report: Functional somatic symptoms are associated with perfectionism in adolescents. Journal of Psychosomatic Research , 79 (4), 328-330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.07.009
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences . Erlbaum.
Curran, T. y Hill, A. P. (2022). Young people’s perceptions of their parents’ expectations and criticism are increasing over time: Implications for perfectionism. Psychological Bulletin, 148 (1-2), 107-128. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000347
Di Vincenzo, C., Pontillo, M., Bellantoni, D., Di Luzio, M., Lala, M. R., Villa, M., Demaria, F. y Vicari, S. (2024). School refusal behavior in children and adolescents: A five-year narrative review of clinical significance and psychopathological profiles. Italian Journal of Pediatrics , 50 (1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-024-01667-0
Flett, G. L. y Hewitt, P. L. (2020). Reflections on three decades of research on multidimensional perfectionism: An introduction to the special issue on further advances in the assessment of perfectionism. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment , 38 (1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282919881928
Flett, G. L., Hewitt, P. L., Besser, A., Su, C., Vaillancourt, T., Boucher, D., Munro, Y., Davidson, L. A. y Gale, O. (2016). The Child-Adolescent Perfectionism Scale: Development, psychometric properties, and associations with stress, distress, and psychiatric symptoms. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment , 34 (7), 634-652. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282916651381
Flett, G. L., Hewitt, P. L., Oliver, J. M. y Macdonald, S. (2002). Perfectionism in children and their parents: A developmental analysis. En G. L. Flett y P. L. Hewitt (Eds.), Perfectionism: Theory, research, and treatment (pp. 89-132). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10458-004
Gershfeld-Litvin, A., Hertz-Palmor, N., Shtilerman, A., Rapapot, S., Gothelf, D. y Weisman, H. (2022). The development of somatic symptom disorder in children: Psychological characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity. Journal of Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, 63 (4) 324-333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaclp.2021.10.008
Havik, T., Bru, E. y Ertesvåg, S. K. (2015). Assessing Reasons for School Non-Attendance. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 59 (3), 316-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2014.904424
Heyne, D., Gren-Landell, M., Melvin, G. y Gentle-Genitty, C. (2019). Differentiation between school attendance problems: Why and how? Cognitive and Behavioral Practice , 26 (1), 8-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2018.03.006
Hong, R. Y., Lee, S. S. M., Chng, R. Y., Zhou, Y., Tsai, F. F. y Tan, S. H. (2017). Developmental trajectories of maladaptive perfectionism in middle childhood. Journal of Personality, 85 (3), 409-422. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12249
Kearney, C. A. (2016). Managing school absenteeism at multiple tiers: An evidence-based and practical guide for professionals . Oxford University Press.
Kearney, C. A., Dupont, R., Fensken, M. y Gonzálvez, C. (2023). School attendance problems and absenteeism as early warning signals: Review and implications for health-based protocols and school-based practices. Frontiers in Education , 8 , 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1253595
Martínez-Torres, J., Pérez-Marco, M., Fuster-Rico, A. y Gonzálvez, C. (2024). Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the questionnaire assessing reasons for school non-attendance. Journal of Education and E-Learning Research, 11 (4), 688-697. https://doi.org/10.20448/jeelr.v11i4.6094
Randall, E. T., Smith, K. R., Kronman, C. A., Conroy, C., Smith, A. M. y Simons, L. E. (2018). Feeling the pressure to be perfect: Effect on pain-related distress and dysfunction in youth with chronic pain. The Journal of Pain , 19 (4), 418-429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2017.11.012
Ruskin, D. A., Dentakos, S., Craig, S., Campbell, F., Isaac, L., Stinson, J., Tyrrell, J., Lyon, R. E., O’Connor, K. y Brown, S. C. (2023). Don’t judge a book by its cover: Exploring low self-reported distress and repressive coping in a pediatric chronic pain population. Journal of Child Health Care: For Professionals Working with Children in the Hospital and Community , 27 (4), 693-706. https://doi.org/10.1177/13674935221096925
Stoeber, J. y Rambow, A. (2007). Perfectionism in adolescent school students: Relations with motivation, achievement, and well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 42 (7), 1379-1389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.10.015
Vecchione, M. y Marsicano, G. (2024). Mean-level change of perfectionism in late childhood: A 2-year longitudinal investigation. Current Psychology, 43, 1211-1234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05317-2
Vicent, M., Inglés, C. J. y García-Fernández, J. M. (2019). El niño perfeccionista. Más allá de la excelencia. Pirámide.
Vicent, M., Inglés, C. J., Sanmartín, R., Gonzálvez, C., Delgado, B. y García-Fernández, J. M. (2019). Spanish validation of the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale: Factorial invariance and latent mean differences across sex and age. Brain Sciences, 9 (310), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci9110310