{"id":91997,"date":"2024-04-04T17:36:35","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T21:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=91997"},"modified":"2024-04-04T17:36:35","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T21:36:35","slug":"crc-spotlight-brock-researcher-explores-how-perfectionism-manifests-in-teens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2024\/04\/crc-spotlight-brock-researcher-explores-how-perfectionism-manifests-in-teens\/","title":{"rendered":"CRC Spotlight: Brock researcher explores how perfectionism manifests in teens"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government\u2019s <\/em>Canada Research Chairs<\/em><\/a> program invests up to $311 million per year to attract and retain some of the world\u2019s most accomplished and promising minds. Chairholders are recognized to be national and international experts in the fields of engineering and the natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. Brock University has <\/em>11 active Canada Research Chairs<\/em><\/a>, with more to be announced. This <\/em>monthly series<\/em><\/a> profiles the work, and lives, of Brock\u2019s Chairholders.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not everyone gets to have their PhD dissertation signed \u2014 and \u2018graded\u2019 \u2014 by a world-famous rock star.<\/p>\n

During her graduate years, Danielle Sirianni Molnar was inspired by Alice Cooper\u2019s Man of the Year<\/em><\/a>, a song about a highly successful, seemingly perfect man whose life falls apart.<\/p>\n

A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Sirianni Molnar, now Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies at Brock, was shocked by the idea that perfectionism could have a dark side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis song opened up a whole new world to me, where people are putting these unrealistic expectations on themselves, being overly self-critical, and believing that perfectionism is what’s guiding them to success when really they’re being successful in spite of perfectionism,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Cooper ended up giving Sirianni Molnar his thumbs-up after one of his concerts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to go backstage, and I brought my dissertation, so he signed it and gave me an A-plus,\u201d she recalls with a laugh.<\/p>\n

That set Sirianni Molnar on a decades-long journey to explore how perfectionism manifests in teens. It was a path that eventually led her to be named Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Adjustment and Well-Being in Children and Youth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She defines perfectionism as \u201cdemanding absolute perfection from the self or others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Characteristics of perfectionist teens include having excessively high standards, feeling chronically dissatisfied, even if they achieve their high standards, engaging in excessive comparison, and thinking they need to be \u2018the best\u2019 as a way of staving off feeling worthless.<\/p>\n

Sirianni Molnar says that while striving for excellence is a good thing, it can be done without the \u201cnasty baggage\u201d of harshness and relentless pressure against oneself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would ask the perfectionistic teen to think deeply about what it’s costing them and to come up with ways to reach for standards that are more reasonable, that are still excellent but not necessarily perfect, so that the teen can balance the benefits with the costs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Sirianni Molnar can relate to the perfectionistic path. Tough times prevented her grandparents, who immigrated to Canada from Italy, from attending school at a young age. They drilled into her and her cousins the value of getting a good education.<\/p>\n