Brock University researcher Danielle Sirianni Molnar is seeking participants for a new study investigating the impact of the current global pandemic and its associated closures on adolescents who experience perfectionism.<\/p>\n
Molnar, an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies, has mobilized quickly to develop the study \u2014 a complement to her larger, ongoing project on how perfectionism affects youth \u2014 because she believes that the social effects of the pandemic may be felt acutely among perfectionists, and particularly among youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a group of kids who are already highly stressed generally, and they tend to not only generate high levels of stress for themselves with the ideals they try to meet, but also be more reactive when stress does happen,\u201d says Molnar, adding that she feels particularly sensitive to this highly vulnerable group as they face current circumstances related to COVID-19.<\/p>\n
The pandemic could magnify and possibly compound many of the issues confronting teens experiencing perfectionism in their everyday lives, such as overwork or isolation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we think of youth and perfectionism, we tend to think of the internal things like trying to get high grades or trying to do the best performance, but there\u2019s a strong interpersonal aspect, too,\u201d says Molnar. \u201cThese are people who tend to feel alienated and a little \u2014 or a lot \u2014 disconnected from other people. They\u2019re always worried about getting negative feedback, so they\u2019re really sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
She suspects that perfectionism among teens now learning from home might lead to them becoming exhausted, especially when it comes to unstructured schooling, because they might be compelled to keep redoing modules to eliminate all errors, for example.\u00a0They may also experience higher levels of stress due to a reluctance or refusal to ask for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people who have a disposition for perfectionism are afraid to ask for help, either because they feel it\u2019s going to be viewed as a flaw or they themselves view it as a flaw,\u201d Molnar says.<\/p>\n
Teachers who often support students in the classroom by observing their nonverbal cues and offering help so they don\u2019t need to ask can no longer watch as closely now that interactions are mediated by technology. If students have no choice but to ask for help via email or chat, they may choose not to ask at all.<\/p>\n
Study participants should be between the ages of 13 and 19 and either self-identify as a perfectionist or have been described by others as one. They will be asked to complete an online survey that should take under 20 minutes as well as an interview via videoconferencing of up to 90 minutes, giving them a chance to express what they are thinking and feeling in their own words.<\/p>\n
Each participant will receive a $40 Amazon gift card, but Molnar suggests that there will be other benefits for participants, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping this experience will allow them to learn more about themselves and to know that they are giving back to others who are in a similar boat, helping us understand any perceived advantages of having this way of being and also recognizing some of the potential disadvantages and things that may be tripping them up,\u201d says Molnar. “With that information, researchers can move forward to put things in place to help youth experiencing the same things.”<\/p>\n
For Molnar, the study is important to add to the literature and growing understanding around this topic, but she is also committed to developing resources and making them available to the teens and parents who need them most.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of research showing that perfectionism is prominent in perhaps one in four or even one in three youth, and that it\u2019s on the rise,\u201d she says. \u201cI want to get the message out there that this is not uncommon, there are ways to deal with it and you\u2019re not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molnar and her team are excited to start the study, though they are also sensitive to the risk of adding pressure to individuals already feeling a lot of stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to be as flexible as we can,” she says. “If people are bored and they want to do it now, that\u2019s great. But if people need some more time to get through some of the school stuff in May and would rather participate in June, that\u2019s fine, too.”<\/p>\n
Participants can sign up for the study, \u201cExploring Youth Perceptions of Perfectionism and How It Affects Their Lives Generally and During the COVID-19 Pandemic,\u201d by contacting Molnar\u2019s lab<\/a> via email<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brock University researcher Danielle Sirianni Molnar is seeking participants for a new study investigating the impact of the current global pandemic and its associated closures on adolescents who experience perfectionism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":65756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,4,5,38],"tags":[45,8791,3585,522,3325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65755"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65763,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65755\/revisions\/65763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}