AN EXAMINATION OF THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERFECTIONISM SCALE WITH A SAMPLE OF ACADEMICALLY TALENTED CHILDREN

The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS; Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990) was constructed and normed on an all-female colleg e student sample. The present study is a psychometric examination of t he instrument for use with a mixed-gender sample of 855 academically t alented children who were participating in the longitudinal Developmen tal Study of Talented Youth conducted by the Center for Talented Youth of Johns Hopkins University. The internal consistency of the MPS tota l score was .87; coefficient alphas for the subscales ranged from .67 to .90. The matrix of intercorrelations of MPS subscales was consisten t with that obtained with the college sample used to develop the instr ument. A confirmatory item factor analysis demonstrated an acceptable degree of fit. A factor analysis of raw scores on the MPS subscales yi elded two factors. The first factor appears to represent dysfunctional perfectionism, the second factor reflects healthy perfectionism. The scores on these factors were correlated with the five-factor domain sc ores obtained on the NEO-FFI. The first factor correlated most strongl y with N (Neuroticism); the second factor correlated most strongly wit h C (Conscientiousness).