Developmental Processes in Health and Well-being Lab<\/a>, will share recent findings and offer tips for coping in \u201cPerfectionism and youth well-being,\u201d a free public webinar hosted by the Institute for Lifespan Development Research Thursday, March 11 from 6 to 7 p.m.<\/p>\nTheir talk will cover why so many youths feel pressured to be perfect, how young perfectionists are experiencing the pandemic and how teachers, educators and youth-focused practitioners can support youth who are struggling with perfectionism.<\/p>\n
Perfectionism is a struggle, even if caregivers aren\u2019t always aware of it, Molnar says.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople higher in perfectionism tend to be really high in what we call \u2018perfectionistic self-presentation.\u2019 They\u2019re the master of wearing masks,\u201d says Molnar. \u201cThese particular individuals, especially the extreme perfectionists, always need to act like everything\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers say young perfectionists can think it is a weakness to show they\u2019re having a hard time or to ask for help, which means caregivers have to be vigilant, especially in a challenging time like the current pandemic.<\/p>\n
School can be an area of particular concern, especially for students in transition years preparing to move on to the next level of their education. Molnar says clearer messaging is needed about how the pandemic will be accounted for when it comes to things like assessing applications for university.<\/p>\n
Dawn Zinga, Professor of Child and Youth Studies and collaborator on this research, points out that young people who identify as perfectionists don\u2019t cut themselves slack for the fact that online learning during a global crisis isn\u2019t something anyone expected or chose to be doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the circumstance is unusual \u2014 if you\u2019re learning biology without a biology lab, you have to expect that things are going to be a bit different \u2014 perfectionists don\u2019t accept that they don\u2019t need to excel anyway,\u201d says Zinga. \u201cThey can see the logic, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily change their behaviour or the feelings that go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Methot-Jones says teachers have an important role to play in \u201ctreading a line\u201d between encouraging students to do their best and supporting students with perfectionistic tendencies who may not be able to set healthy limits for themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cYouth are telling us they keep going back to their projects and fidgeting with them, playing with them, trying to make them better,\u201d says Methot-Jones. \u201cIt causes anxiety, and they feel a need to keep coming back to it because they want their teacher to tell them they\u2019re doing well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackburn agrees educators should keep an eye out for opportunities to help young perfectionists learn to prioritize their own well-being over positive feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people are aware that their perfectionism is causing them stress and anxiety, but their success in evaluative components is more important to them, so they say they wouldn\u2019t get rid of their perfectionism even if they could,\u201d says Blackburn. \u201cIt\u2019s important for teachers or coaches \u2014 the people who are making those evaluations \u2014 to tell them that sometimes their own well-being is worth more than the evaluation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blackburn says she would like more people to understand that there are effective ways of coping with perfectionistic tendencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving strategies to help deal with perfectionism doesn\u2019t impact levels of success,\u201d she says. \u201cIt might even help improve them, because sometimes a person\u2019s perfectionism can get in their way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zinga takes this idea a step further.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople often believe they succeed to the level they do because of their perfectionism, when research is showing they succeed to that level despite their perfectionism,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Methot-Jones says the notion that perfectionism can be a positive trait doesn\u2019t account for its potential negative impacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis misconstrual of perfectionism being a good thing is even prominent among perfectionists. Although it does motivate you and it can force you to do your best, it\u2019s also associated with so many negative outcomes like depression and anxiety,\u201d she says. \u201cIt seems on the surface to be a positive quality, but it does cause a lot of damage for individuals who are perfectionistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Molnar, who describes perfectionism as \u201can evil form of self-sabotage,\u201d concurs that the costs of perfectionism far outweigh any benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerfectionism often impedes performance more than enhances it, and it strips people of joy by not allowing them to appreciate their successes and the positives of a performance or experience because they are weighed down and ultra-focused on what is not perfect instead,\u201d says Molnar. \u201cIt can also steal opportunities from people by keeping them paralyzed with fear because they are afraid of not doing things perfectly the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone is welcome to attend \u201cPerfectionism and Youth Well-being.\u201d Those interested in joining are asked to please register online<\/a> to access login details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pandemic has inspired many people to take up a new hobby, but for people with perfectionist tendencies, these new endeavours aren\u2019t just a pastime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":70838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9794,3319,1,4,5,38],"tags":[2565,45,3585,4212,522,9749,10050,10051],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70837"}],"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=70837"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70843,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70837\/revisions\/70843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}