Developmental pathways of perfectionism: Associations with bullying perpetration, peer victimization, and narcissism

Although socially prescribed perfectionism has been associated with psychosocial difficulties, its longitudinal associations with adolescent bullying perpetration, peer victimization, and narcissism remain unknown. We examined these links in a sample of 577 adolescents assessed annually on six occasions (Grades 7–12; mean age 13.02 (SD = 0.38) in Grade 7) using autoregressive cross-lagged path analyses. Results indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted peer victimization across multiple time points, and positively predicted bullying perpetration across one time point. Peer victimization negatively predicted narcissism across two time points, whereas narcissism positively predicted bullying perpetration across one time point. Socially prescribed perfectionism also positively predicted narcissism across two time points. Finally, socially prescribed perfectionism was negatively indirectly associated with narcissism through victimization. Findings support that adolescent perfectionism can result in negative psychosocial outcomes, in particular peer victimization. Results also highlight that pathways of perfectionistic tendencies can manifest into different psychosocial outcomes.