Construction of Three-Dimensional Self-Treatment Strategies and Their Associations With Perfectionism and Academic and Social Anxiety

Author: Ying-Fen Chang Office of Academic Affairs Taichung Shang-An Elementary School)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 67, No. 1
Date：March 2022
Pages：193-225
DOI：https://doi.org/10.6209/JORIES.202203_67(1).0007

Abstract：
Both contextual and personal factors affect individual adaptation (Zeidner et al., 2000), but contextual factors are difficult for individuals to control (Weiner, 1985). When individuals are in a negative external environment, the strategies they use to cope determine their ability to adapt (Folkman & Lazarus, 1988a, 1988b). Therefore, coping strategies merit careful examination. Most theories (Barber, 1996; Bowlby, 1973; Deci & Ryan, 2002; Forward, 1997; Hirschi, 1969; House, 1981) have highlighted that an individual’s relationships with others (and the treatment they receive from others) are highly influential, but few studies have described the role of the self-relationship (individuals’ treatment of themselves). Self-compassion theory (Neff, 2003) and self-silencing theory (Jack, 1991) describe individuals’ treatment of themselves in negative external environments. This study investigated self-treatment strategies by using these two theories and analyzed the associations of these strategies with related variables.
According to self-compassion theory (Neff, 2003), individuals use self-compassion (which comprises self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness) and self-disparagement strategies (such as self-criticism, isolation, and over-identification) to deal with negative environments. The theory also describes self-compassion as an adaptive self-treatment strategy whereby individuals prevent negative external environments from hurting them by cherishing and supporting themselves, giving themselves warmth and strength, and adapting to the environment. Self-disparagement is a maladaptive self-treatment strategy whereby individuals internally echo others’ criticism and ruminate on and indulge in their frustrations and suffering. According to self-silencing theory (Jack, 1991), self-silencing (which refers to silencing the self, externalizing self-perception, self-sacrificing, and dividing the self) is a maladaptive self-treatment strategy individuals use to hide their inner feelings, cater to others, and maintain relationships. On the basis of self-compassion theory (Neff, 2003) and self-silencing theory (Jack, 1991), this study developed the Self-Treatment Strategy Scale, which incorporates self-compassion, self-disparagement, and self-silencing, and created a second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model for self-treatment strategies.
Most studies (Flett et al., 2007; Fletcher et al., 2019; James et al., 2015) have indicated that self-treatment strategies (self-compassion, self-disparagement, and self-silencing) are related to perfectionism and negative emotions, but they have only investigated the association of one of three self-treatment strategies with perfectionism and negative emotions at a time. This study simultaneously explored the associations of all three self-treatment strategies with perfectionism and negative emotions individually.
Chang (2019) constructed a four-dimensional perfectionism model (comprising self-oriented perfectionistic striving, self-oriented perfectionistic concerns, socially prescribed perfectionistic striving, and socially prescribed perfectionistic concerns) with two character aspects (adaptive perfectionistic striving and maladaptive perfectionistic concerns) (Frost et al., 1993) and two resource aspects (adaptive self-oriented perfectionism and maladaptive socially prescribed perfectionism) (Hewitt & Flett, 1991). The model fit the observed data better than did the two perfectionism character aspects (perfectionistic striving and perfectionistic concerns) (Frost et al., 1993) or two perfectionism resource aspects (self-oriented perfectionism and socially prescribed perfectionism) (Hewitt & Flett, 1991) alone. Studies have indicated that adaptive perfectionistic striving is unrelated to self-compassion, that maladaptive perfectionism is negatively related to self-compassion (Neff, 2003), that adaptive perfectionism is inconsistent with negative emotions, and that the association between maladaptive perfectionism and anxiety is uniformly negative (Mehr & Adams, 2016). Therefore, this study explored self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism concerns.
Because this study recruited students, academic anxiety and social anxiety were used as the negative emotions. Academic anxiety refers to anxiety during the learning process due to concerns regarding poor performance, fear of dropping in class rankings, and aversion to failure (Pekrun et al., 2002). Social anxiety refers to concerns regarding the opinions of others and a fear of criticism during interpersonal interactions.
The coping model of perfectionism (Hewitt & Flett, 2002) suggests that perfectionism prompts individuals to use coping strategies, which affect emotions. Maladaptive perfectionism leads individuals to use improper coping strategies, yielding negative emotions. Numerous studies (Gnilka et al., 2012; Noble et al., 2014) have indicated that perfectionism can predict negative emotions through various coping strategies, highlighting the key role of coping strategies. Because self-compassion, self-disparagement, and self-silencing are coping strategies for negative external environments, perfectionism may predict academic and social anxiety through these strategies.
Studies have mostly analyzed the associations of a certain dimension of perfectionism with self-compassion, self-disparagement, or self-silencing and have not investigated self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism in the four-dimensional perfectionism model. In addition, few studies have explored self-compassion, self-disparagement, and self-silencing simultaneously or investigated academic and social anxiety. Therefore, this study investigated four-dimensional perfectionism (Chang, 2019), self-compassion theory (Neff, 2003), self-silencing theory (Jack, 1991), and academic and social anxiety, in addition to examining relevant literature, to determine the associations among self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism, self-compassion, self-disparagement, self-silencing, and academic and social anxiety. This study also developed a model of perfectionism, self-treatment strategies, and academic and social anxiety to explore these associations and proposed the following hypotheses:
H₁: The second-order CFA model of self-treatment strategies would adequately fit the observed data.
H₂: The model of perfectionism, self-treatment strategies, and academic and social anxiety would adequately fit the observed data.
H₃: Self-oriented perfectionism would negatively predict self-compassion and positively predict self-disparagement and socially prescribed perfectionism would negatively predict self-compassion and positively predict self-disparagement and self-silencing.
H₄: Self-compassion would negatively predict academic and social anxiety, self-disparagement would positively predict academic and social anxiety, and self-silencing would positively predict social anxiety.
H₅: Self-oriented perfectionism would positively predict academic and social anxiety and socially prescribed perfectionism would positively predict academic and social anxiety.
The participants were 2,680 junior high school students, and structural equation modeling was used. The following results were obtained: (a) the second-order CFA model of self-treatment strategies fit the observed data well; (b) the model of perfectionism, self-treatment strategies, and academic and social anxiety fit the observed data well; (c) both self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism concerns positively predicted self-disparagement and self-silencing; (d) self-compassion and self-disparagement negatively and positively predicted academic anxiety, respectively; self-silencing positively predicted social anxiety; and (e) both self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism concerns positively predicted academic and social anxiety.
The self-treatment strategies comprised self-compassion, self-disparagement, and self-silencing. The fit of the second-order CFA model of self-treatment strategies supported self-compassion theory (Neff, 2003), self-silencing theory (Jack, 1991), and the findings in the literature (Besser et al., 2003; Chen & Chen, 2019; Coroiu et al., 2018; Gilbert et al., 2011), indicating that self-compassion, self-disparagement, self-silencing are self-treatment strategies with different dimensions. The fit of the model provided strong evidence for the construct validity of the Self-Treatment Strategy Scale. Parents, teachers, and psychologists can use this scale to assess students’ self-treatment strategies, ability to adapt to negative environments, and the reasons for any inability to adapt and provide guidance accordingly.
This study expanded on the findings of other studies (Gnilka et al., 2012; Noble et al., 2014) by exploring the associations of the self-treatment strategies with perfectionism and academic and social anxiety. The results indicate that self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism did not predict self-compassion, that the predictive effects of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism on self-disparagement were similar, and that the predictive effect of socially prescribed perfectionism on self-silencing was stronger than that of self-oriented perfectionism. The results also indicate that self-compassion and self-disparagement predicted academic anxiety more effectively than did self-silencing and that self-silencing predicted social anxiety more effectively than did self-compassion and self-disparagement. This study pursued a new research direction by analyzing the associations of self-compassion, self-disparagement, and self-silencing with perfectionism and academic and social anxiety.

Keywords：self-silencing, self-compassion, self-disparagement, perfectionism, social anxiety

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