The Relationship between Perfectionism and Psychological Symptoms with the Mediation of Self-compassion and External Shame among Intelligent High School Students of Amol

 Intelligent students may experience more stress, anxiety, and adjustment problems than non-gifted students for various reasons, including perfectionism. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between perfectionism and psychological symptoms with the mediation of self-compassion and external shame among intelligent students.

 A descriptive and correlational study was conducted with the participation of 300 high school intelligent students in Amol. A city in north of Iran, in 2022. Multistage cluster random sampling was done. The data were collected using six-dimensional and three-dimensional perfectionism, stress-anxiety-depression, self-compassion, and external shame questionnaires. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation tests and structural equation models and SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 25.0 IBM SPSS (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill., USA) and AMOS-24 softwares.

 An increase in the amount of external shame caused increase in both psychological symptoms (r=0.581). An increase in self-pity (r=0.393) and perfectionism (r=0.387) caused a decrease in psychological symptoms.The coefficients of the direct path between perfectionism and self-compassion were positive but not significant (P=0.123, β=0.528). The relationship between perfectionism and external shame is positive and significant (P<0.001, β=0.498), between self-compassion and negative and significant psychological symptoms (P<0.001, β=0.208), There were positive and significant correlations between external shame and psychological symptoms (P<0.001, β=0.488). The path coefficient of the indirect effect of perfectionism through the mediation of external shame on positive and significant psychological symptoms (P<0.001, β=0.243) and also the indirect effect of perfectionism on psychological symptoms through the mediation of negative self-compassion and it was significant (P< 0.001, β = -0.109).

 The study showed that with the increase in the level of perfectionism and the subsequent increase in external shame, psychological symptoms also increase. Also, with the increase of perfectionism followed by the promotion of self-compassion, the amount of psychological symptoms decreases.