In this paper I seek to examine the effect of high school students' perfectionistic inclination and self-resilience on depression and analyze how self-resilience serves as an intervening variable for depression according to the types of perfectionism....
In this paper I seek to examine the effect of high school students' perfectionistic inclination and self-resilience on depression and analyze how self-resilience serves as an intervening variable for depression according to the types of perfectionism.
This research processed data statistically using SPSS ver 13.0 and ran an analysis at significance level 5%.
Correlation Analysis was employed for analyzing the differences of self-resilience according to the types of perfectionism while Correlation Analysis was chosen for analyzing the differences of depression degree according to the types of perfectionism. Multiple Regression was used to analyze that depression degree according to the types of perfectionism will differ in terms of mediation effect of self-resilience.
As a measurement instrument for the inclination of perfectionism, Hewitt and Flett(1911)'s Multi-dimension Perfectionism Scale(MPS), which Hong He-young(1995) re-factored in and analyzed what Han Ki-yeon(1993) adapted from, was used.
As a measurement instrument for levels of self-resilience, the scale of constituents that Park Eun-hee developed based upon O'Connell-Higgins(1983) and Block & Klomen(1996)'s researches was used.
As a measurement instrument for depression, Children's Depression Inventory(CDI) that was standardized by Han Yu-jin(1993) was used. This scale was what Kovacs had developed for measuring children's depression degree.
First, in the Hypothesis 1, the analysis that self-resilience will differ according to the types of perfectionism is as follows.
In the subordinate variables of perfectionistic inclination, self-directed and other-directed perfectionism among three types of perfectionism show the positive(+) interrelationship with self-resilience. The reason why the higher self-directed perfectionism the groups have, the higher self-resilience they have is that self-directed perfectionism leads people to the criterion they set to pursue their own maturity and satisfaction, and this has the capacity of self-control and conviction about the result which deals with such a situation of itself and without difficulty.
Also, The reason why the higher other-directed perfectionism the groups have, the higher self-resilience they have is that because other-directed perfectionism imposes unrealistic criterion to meaningful others and assesses their performances strictly, other-directed perfectionism enhances self-resilience in the aspect of other-directed positive features such as leadership, motivation facilitation, concern and so forth.
Second, in the hypothesis 2, the analysis of depression degree's difference according to the types of perfectionism is as follows.
Other-directed perfectionism among types of perfectionism displays the negative(-) interrelationship while society-directed perfectionism reveals the positive(+) interrelationship with depression. Self-directed perfectionism has nothing to do with depression, which means the stronger the inclination of self-directed perfectionism is, the higher the adaptative factors in the daily life are.
Other-directed perfectionism shows the negative(-) interrelationship with depression at significance level 1%, which means the higher other-orientation is, the less depression is. As other-directed perfectionism asks others to be perfect and sees their perfect performances as important, other's faults rather than their own are brought into focus. Therefore, it can be analyzed in its meaning into low depression degree. Society-directed perfectionism shows the positive(+) interrelationship with depression at significance level 0.1%, which means the higher inclination of society-directed perfectionism is directly proportional to depression. The reason why the higher inclination of society-directed perfectionism leads to higher depression is that when it comes to the society-directed perfectionistic inclination, the criterion imposed by meaningful others is too heavy and uncontrollable that a person can not only feel anger, anxiety, and depression but he or she can also experience the strong depression from the desire to receive others' care and recognition.
Therefore, the higher inclination of society-directed perfectionism can be analyzed into the higher degree of depression.
Third, in the hypothesis 3, the analysis that depression degree according to the types of perfectionistic inclination will differ according to the mediation effect of self-resilience is as follows.
It turns out that depression degree according to self-directed types doesn't have the mediation effect of self-resilience. The types of other-directed perfectionism only had perfect mediating effect(direct effect). Because the negative relation(Beta=-0.155, p<0.01) that the higher other-directed perfectionism is, the lower the depressive inclination is is established, it can be analyzed that the higher other-directed perfectionism is, the less depression is. That can be interrelatedly explained with the positive features of other-directed perfectionism. The positive features can either reveal the leadership or facilitate others' motivation. A precedent study on the positive aspect such as encouragement toward others, motivation facilitation, concern and so on(Hollender, 1965; Burns, 1983) show that the positive features of other-directed perfectionism like that turn out to be quite adaptative to the interpersonal skills or social relationships(Huh Ji-yeon, 2004). Depression degree according to the types of society-directed perfectionism didn't have the mediation effect of the self-resilience because the person who has the high society-directed perfectionism wants to get acknowledgment from others and has a strong desire to evade negative evaluation. This kind of desire made a person feel depressed from others' criticism instead of their recognition when the goals that other people set for the person are too high that he or she can't achieve it. Therefore, it can be analyzed that the types of society-directed perfectionism cannot handle the emotional dimension of a person effectively and control the ego flexibly.
Thus, this study has a significance in that it ascertains that the inclination of perfectionism is the personality traits which contain both positive and negative aspects. Plus, examining the result of a bit more positive aspect of perfectionistic inclination by introducing the concept of self-resilience as a mediation variable that can relieve depression according to the inclination of perfectionism had highly motivated students who have the strong volition to achieve it respect their individual interests/needs and recognize personal differences and fully develop and realize their potential by taking up the receptive position through care and support.
Last but not least, understand multi-dimensional inclination of perfectionism a lot better and confident about their achievement setting their suitable goals positively reinforced useful indicator.