Low Frustration Tolerance, Childhood Perfectionism, and Mental Health Problems in Peruvian Children: A Network Analysis

Background/Objectives: Childhood mental health problems are often organized into interrelated emotional, attentional, and behavioral domains. However, little is known about how low frustration tolerance and childhood perfectionism are connected with these domains in school-aged children. This study aimed to estimate the network structure of low frustration tolerance, childhood perfectionism, and mental health problems in Peruvian children aged 8 to 12 years. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 707 Peruvian children from public and private schools in Lima, Peru. The assessed variables were low frustration tolerance, perfectionistic self-demands, reaction to failure, internalizing problems, attention problems, and externalizing problems. A non-regularized Gaussian graphical model was estimated using Spearman correlations. Expected influence was calculated to identify central nodes. Network accuracy and stability were evaluated using nonparametric bootstrap and case-dropping procedures. Network comparisons were performed according to sex and school type. Results: In the full-sample dimension-level network, eight edges were identified, all of which were positive. Low frustration tolerance and reaction to failure showed the highest observed expected influence values. The strongest associations were observed between reaction to failure and internalizing problems, low frustration tolerance and externalizing problems, perfectionistic self-demands and reaction to failure, and low frustration tolerance and reaction to failure. Expected influence showed adequate case-dropping stability. Exploratory network comparisons identified the largest observed sex difference in the association between reaction to failure and internalizing problems, whereas global strength was descriptively higher in public than private schools; however, these omnibus group differences did not remain statistically significant after correction for multiple grouping comparisons. Conclusions: Low frustration tolerance and reaction to failure emerged as highly connected dimensions within the estimated network. These findings identify candidate processes for further longitudinal and preventive research focused on emotional regulation and adaptive responses to failure while not implying causal or intervention effects.