The Multidimesional Perfectionism Scale: Examining its Factor Structure using Item Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Higher education, Faculty of Education, Assuit University, Assuit, Egypt

Abstract

Perfectionism is one of the most important variables due to its association with many educational and psychological variables such as personality traits. Thus, there is an urgent need for the standardized measurement of perfectionism. Frost and colleagues (1990) developed the most commonly used scale of perfectionism in both the Arab and foreign countries. The Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS) is composed of six dimensions and 35 items in its final form. Hence, the present study aimed at investigating the factor structure of the scale using item exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in the Arab environment. Item factor analysis is a recently developed methodology for fitting factor analytic models with ordinal data. It yeilds unbiased estimates compared to the common factor model. It was noted that the latter approach was used in almost all published studies that may impact the credibility of the results obtained. Participants were 629 university students who were randomly split into two groups 314 and 315 to conduct item exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, respectively. After fitting 5-7 factor analytic models, the results revealed the six-factor model is the most interpretable after removing two items. As for the results of item confirmatory factor analysis, both the original and the one obtained from EFA had lack of fit indices except RMESA. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended to use the translated scale after confirming its factor structure in the intended population since perfectionism is a malleable variable that differs from one culture to another.

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References

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