Perfectionism and Family Interactions As Determinants of Somatization in Adolescents

Abstract

The overall goal of this study was to examine vulnerability factors for the occurrence and developmentof somatization in adolescents. A review of the literature in the field of family relations and perfectionismindicates that these are dimensions that are related to somatization in children and adolescents, but alsoin adults. The research was conducted on students from two primary and two secondary schools inMostar (N = 600). The average age of the participants is M = 14.5 (SD = 1.77). The following measuringinstruments were applied: Sociodemographic Features Questionnaire; Perfectionism Scale for Childrenand Adolescents (Flett, Hewitt, Boucher, Davidson, & Munro 2000); Adaptive/maladaptiveperfectionism scale (Rice and Preusser 2002); Scale of quality of family interactions (KOBI; Vulić-Prtorić 2004) and Scale of somatic symptoms of anxiety (SOMA; Vulić-Prtorić 1999). The results ofmultiple regression analysis indicate the importance of the contribution of the dimensions ofperfectionism and family relations in explaining somatization in adolescents. The structure of thepredictors is different, depending on the gender of the participants.

Keywords

• perfectionism
• family relationships
• somatization
• adolescents