New Findings: Perfectionistic Thoughts and Mental Health During the Pandemic

Check out Dr. Molnar’s latest research article on perfectionism and mental health among young adults during the COVID-19 pandemic published @ Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive Therapy with Dr. Terrance Wade, Dr. Tabitha Methot, Jessy Moore & Dr. Deborah O’Leary!

For the full article, click here: https://rdcu.be/czUEa

What is the study about?

We examined how young adults’ perfectionism before the pandemic may be a risk factor for mental health (e.g., symptoms of anxiety and depression) during the pandemic.

What did we find?

Young adults (18-25 years old) who frequently think that they need to be perfect are experiencing more anxiety during the pandemic. Our results support Dr. Gordon Flett’s and Dr. Paul Hewitt’s work, which theorizes that perfectionism is a vulnerability factor for poorer mental health, especially when under stressful times, like a global pandemic!

What about depressive symptoms?

Our results did not show that thinking about the need to perfect predicted changes in depression from before the pandemic to during the pandemic.

However, those who experienced more frequent perfectionistic thoughts before the pandemic experienced more depressive symptoms before the pandemic (within time).

Along the same lines, young adults who experienced more frequent perfectionistic thoughts during the pandemic also experienced more symptoms of depression during the pandemic (within time).

Did perfectionism change with the onset of the pandemic?

Another interesting finding was that young people reported experiencing perfectionistic thoughts less frequently during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic. This suggests that, at least early on in the pandemic, some young people gave themselves a bit of a break from demanding perfection of themselves.

So what?

Overall, our findings indicate that frequently thinking about the need to be perfect is not adaptive or helpful. Rather, it is a risk factor for poorer mental health as we move through this pandemic.

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