Effects of Childhood Trauma and Perfectionism on Stress, Mood, Defeat and Entrapment

Adverse experiences in early life significantly impact an individual’s long-term physical and mental health. Socially prescribed perfectionism has also been found to be associated with negative outcomes, including suicide risk. However, less is known about how these variables interact or their mechanisms of action in daily life. The current research explores the main and interactive effects of childhood trauma and socially prescribed perfectionism on measures of perceived stress, mood, defeat and entrapment as well as indirect effects. Three studies (cross-sectional survey and two 7-day intensive longitudinal designs) are reported. Participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and measures of socially prescribed perfectionism, history of suicide thoughts and behaviours, perceived stress, mood, defeat and entrapment. The results showed that childhood trauma and socially prescribed perfectionism were associated with higher levels of perceived stress, negative mood, defeat, entrapment and less positive mood in adulthood across the three studies. Childhood trauma and socially prescribed perfectionism also indirectly affected daily negative mood through daily perceived stress levels and daily feelings of entrapment through daily levels of defeat. Interventions aimed at mitigating the negative effects of childhood trauma and socially prescribed perfectionism ought to target modifiable risk factors such as perceived stress, mood, defeat and entrapment.