Short Communication Perfectionism, trait emotional intelligence, and psychological outcomes Martin M. Smith a,⇑ , Donald H. Saklofske a , Gonggu Yan b a Department of Psychology, Social Science Center, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada b School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China article info Article history: Received 7 April 2015 Received in revised form 2 May 2015 Accepted 4 May 2015 Available online 16 May 2015 Keywords: Perfectionism Perfectionistic strivings Perfectionistic concerns Trait emotional intelligence abstract Perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns correlate moderately and positively but exhibit divergent patterns of associations with positive and negative outcomes. Despite accumulated evidence supporting the incremental validity of trait emotional intelligence, over and above the Big Five, the con- tention that trait emotional intelligence plays a mediating role in the perfectionism-outcome link has yet to be investigated. To address this, 645 Chinese participants completed pencil-and-paper measures of perfectionistic strivings, perfectionistic concerns, trait emotional intelligence, depression, anxiety, stress, and satisfaction with life. Perfectionistic strivings were positively related to trait emotional intelligence while perfectionistic concerns were negatively related to trait emotional intelligence. Moreover, trait emotional intelligence fully mediated the link between perfectionistic strivings and satisfaction with life and partially mediated the link between perfectionistic concerns and depression, anxiety, stress, and sat- isfaction with life. However, perfectionistic strivings’ total effects on depression, anxiety, and stress were non-significant, thus precluding mediation. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction There are several existing conceptualizations of perfectionism (Dunkley, Zuroff, & Blankstein, 2003; Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990; Hewitt & Flett, 1991) with research indicating perfectionism is best conceptualized as multidimensional (Hewitt, Flett, Besser, Sherry, & McGee, 2003). One major model proposes that perfectionism is comprised of two higher-order fac- tors (Cox, Enns, & Clara, 2002; Stoeber & Otto, 2006): perfectionis- tic strivings and perfectionistic concerns. Perfectionistic strivings refer to a strongly held belief that being perfect is important, as well as a propensity to ceaselessly and rigidly demand perfection of the self (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). In contrast, perfectionistic con- cerns describes a strongly held belief that being perfect is impor- tant to others, as well a propensity to experience nagging self-doubts, excessive concerns over mistakes, and overly negative reactions to perceived setbacks (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). This two-factor model of perfectionism is theoretically based, widely used, and an empirical supported synthesis of several fundamental models of perfectionism (Frost et al., 1990; Hewitt & Flett, 1991). Perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns correlate moderately and positively (see Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Nonetheless, they exhibit divergent patterns of associations with positive and negative outcomes (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). Perfectionistic concerns are robustly related to decreased life satis- faction and increased depression, anxiety, and stress (Hill, Huelsman, & Gustavo, 2010; Smith, Saklofske, & Nordstokke, 2014; Stoeber & Otto, 2006). In contrast, perfectionistic strivings typically have non-significant bivariate associations with positive and negative outcomes (Stoeber & Otto, 2006). However, after con- trolling for overlap with perfectionistic concerns, perfectionistic strivings are sometimes positively related to positive outcomes (e.g., life satisfaction) and negatively related to negative outcomes (e.g., negative emotionality; Hill et al., 2010). While research into this discrepancy has been conducted (e.g., Dunkley et al., 2003), there remains much to be learned. Specifically, despite evidence supporting the incremental validity of TEI beyond the Big 5, in pre- dicting positive and negative outcomes (e.g., Austin, Saklofske, & Egan, 2005; Saklofske, Austin, & Minski, 2003), the contention that TEI mediates divergent patterns of associations with perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns remains untested. 1.1. Trait emotional intelligence and perfectionism TEI is a lower-order personality trait that subsumes a constella- tion of emotion-related self-perceptions (Petrides & Furnham, 2001). Research indicates perfectionistic concerns correlates mod- erately and negatively with TEI (Smith et al., 2014) while the rela- tionship between perfectionistic strivings and TEI has not been http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.010 0191-8869/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 519 661 2111; fax: +1 519 661 3961. E-mail address: msmit454@uwo.ca (M.M. Smith). Personality and Individual Differences 85 (2015) 155–158 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid