HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE…

Perfectionistic automatic thoughts are relatively common among young adults with about 2 in 5 young adults experiencing thoughts about the need to be perfect at least moderately often. Thoughts about the need to be perfect tended to decrease among young adults during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Young adults who more frequently thought about needing to be perfect experienced higher levels of depressive symptoms both before and during the pandemic compared to those who experienced perfectionistic thoughts less frequently. Young adults who more frequently engaged in perfectionistic automatic thinking experienced higher levels of anxiety before and during the pandemic and experienced a greater increase in anxiety symptoms pre-pandemic to during the pandemic.

Many of us have thought to ourselves at one point or another that we need to be perfect, or we need to do better. It is also not uncommon to think about our mistakes, and specifically how much we hate making mistakes. These thoughts are referred to by perfectionism researchers as “perfectionistic automatic thoughts” or “perfectionistic cognitions.” Whereas some of us have little experience with these thoughts, others seem to have them playing on a continuous loop in their heads. Are these thoughts changeable over time? How do these thoughts affect our mental health? In this post, we will look at the findings from a recent study (Molnar et al., 2020) that examined how the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted the amount of perfectionistic thoughts experienced by young adults and how perfectionistic thoughts may contribute to anxiety and depressive symptoms.

What are perfectionistic automatic thoughts?

Perfectionistic automatic thoughts or perfectionistic cognitions are thoughts that people have about their strong need to be absolutely perfect or their concerns about not being perfect along with a focus on any potential flaws or mistakes that they may have made. People who frequently engage in perfectionistic thinking tend to focus on their belief that they are not perfect, but that they should be perfect (see Molnar & Murphy, 2016 for more detailed information).

How common are perfectionistic automatic thoughts among young adults?

In a recent study, 171 young adults from Southern Ontario, Canada, between the ages of 19 and 25 years, completed surveys assessing how frequently they experienced perfectionistic automatic thoughts along with questionnaires measuring their levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms (Molnar et al., 2021). Importantly, these young adults completed these surveys both before the COVID-19 pandemic began and again 6-9 months into the pandemic. Some interesting findings emerged. Our results showed that before the pandemic began approximately 32% of young adults experienced perfectionistic thoughts moderately often, while an additional 6% of young adults indicated that they experienced these thoughts either often or all of the time. In other words, about 2 out of 5 young adults thought about their need to be perfect fairly often.

Are perfectionistic automatic thoughts changeable and did they change with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic?

It appears that perfectionistic thoughts can change over time. The results of the study show that the frequency with which young adults experienced thoughts about the need to be perfect decreased from before the pandemic to the early stages of the pandemic. It must be noted; however, that the decrease was relatively small (i.e., average levels before the pandemic = 45.24; average levels during the pandemic = 41.07). Given the stress of the pandemic and the related government-mandated lockdowns, why would perfectionistic thoughts have decreased among young adults? According to Dr. Gordon Flett and Dr. Paul Hewitt, the pandemic may have prompted people to disengage from perfectionistic thinking and to instead embrace healthier thinking patterns such as focusing more so on self-care (Flett & Hewitt, 2020).

Thus, during the early stages of the pandemic, people may have shifted their focus away from their need to be perfect and towards their own and their family’s health and well-being. However, it is far too early to make any strong conclusions about how the pandemic is affecting perfectionistic thinking patterns. For example, the pandemic could also theoretically provoke people to more frequently engage in perfectionistic thinking in an effort to achieve a greater sense of control, security, and meaning (Flett & Hewitt, 2020).

This idea is based on the notion that perfectionistic people tend to have a strong need for control and a felt sense of security was likely disrupted for many as a direct result of the pandemic and its related lockdowns.

How are perfectionistic automatic thoughts related to mental health among young adults?

Young adults who had more frequent thoughts about needing to be perfect before the onset of the pandemic experienced more depressive symptoms before the pandemic and during the early stages of the pandemic. This is consistent with other studies that have shown clear links between perfectionistic thoughts and depression (e.g., Besser et al., 2020). However, our findings did not show that experiencing more frequent perfectionistic thoughts predicted changes in depressive symptoms. This is because depressive symptoms did not change among our sample of young adults from before the pandemic began to the early stages of the pandemic.

Anxiety, however, did increase from before the pandemic began to during the pandemic. Importantly, young adults who more frequently thought about their need to be perfect experienced higher levels of anxiety before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and experienced greater increases in anxiety from before the pandemic to the early stages of the pandemic. Our results are consistent with other studies that have also shown that perfectionistic automatic thoughts increase risk for anxiety (e.g., Tyler et al., 2021).

Taken together, these findings support the idea that individuals who experience frequent thoughts about needing to be perfect or are persistently concerned about not being perfect are more vulnerable to poorer mental health and that this vulnerability may be heightened when under stressful circumstances such as a global pandemic. Contrary to many people’s beliefs that perfectionistic thoughts are good for you because they can foster motivation and self-improvement, our results show that these thoughts are harmful by undermining mental health.

To learn more about this study, check out:

Molnar, D. S., Methot-Jones, T., Moore, J., O’Leary, D. D., & Wade, T. J. (2021). Perfectionistic cognitions pre-pandemic predict greater anxiety symptoms during the pandemic among emerging adults: A two-wave cross-lagged study. Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy: RET, 1–19. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10942-021-00423-1