HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE…
Headlines were made in 2019 when a remarkable study showed that young people today are more perfectionistic than previous generations (see Curran & Hill, 2019). The rising tide of perfectionism among youth is a significant public health problem given that perfectionism is related to a host of problems, including feeling lonely and disconnected from others, having poor physical health, and experiencing more mental health problems and stress (see Chen et al., 2012; Molnar et al., 2006; Rnic et al., 2021; Limburg et al., 2017). However, there is still a lot that we do not know about perfectionism in young people. For example, is perfectionism changeable over time and how has it affected teens’ mental health and stress levels during the unprecedented and difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic? In this issue, we will specifically explore findings from a recent study (Molnar et al., 2023) that examined how the COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted teen perfectionism and how perfectionism may have contributed to anxiety, depressive symptoms, and stress among teenagers during the pandemic.
What is Perfectionism?
Perfectionism can be studied in many different ways. For example, we can think of perfectionism as a personality trait such that when someone asks you to describe yourself, you say “I am a total perfectionist!” We can also think of perfectionism as a type of thinking pattern where researchers measure how often you think about your need to be perfect. Finally, we can think of perfectionism as a type of behaviour in which researchers could measure the degree to which you actively hide your perceived flaws and/or work hard to create an image of flawlessness for others. In this issue, we treat perfectionism as a personality trait. When measuring perfectionism as a personality trait, we have to keep in mind that there are different “flavours” of perfectionism. Self-oriented perfectionism refers to requiring perfection from the self.
In other words, someone who is a self-oriented perfectionist demands perfection from themself and is incredibly hard on themself when they do not meet those demands. Socially prescribed perfectionism refers to the belief or perceptions that others require perfection from the self. Put differently, someone who is a socially prescribed perfectionist thinks that others require them to be perfect and often believes that they will never measure up to others’ expectations. Finally, other-oriented perfectionism is the requirement of perfection from others. Someone who is an other-oriented perfectionist demands total flawlessness from others and is highly critical of other people when they fall short of their expectations. Until recently, researchers only measured self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism among young people, so this issue will focus on those two forms, rather than other-oriented perfectionism.
PLEASE NOTE: The information presented in this blog is intended for information purposes only. It is not intended to be used as diagnostic criteria. Perfectionism is not a recognized psychological disorder. The information in this blog is NOT a substitute for advice by an appropriate health professional. If you are experiencing distress, please contact an appropriate health professional.
How have mental health problems such as anxiety and depressive symptoms along with stress changed over the pandemic among teenagers?
In a recent study, 187 teens (80% female, 78% White) between the ages of 13 and 19 years filled out questionnaires that measured perfectionism, depressive symptoms, stress, and anxiety before the pandemic began and then again during the first and second government mandated lockdowns that took place in Ontario, Canada. Some interesting results emerged from this study.
We found that anxiety did not appear to change over the course of the pandemic among teenagers. This actually surprised us because other studies have found that anxiety increased from before the pandemic to during the pandemic among young adults (see Molnar et al., 2021). We think that we did not find changes in anxiety because the teens in our study were already very anxious before the pandemic even started so there was really not much room to increase any further. Also, anxiety is tricky to measure as there are many different forms of anxiety (e.g., social anxiety, general anxiety, etc.). It may have been that the lockdwons helped to temporarily reduce some forms of anxiety such as social anxiety because there were fewer interactions but increased other forms of anxiety such as general anxiety because of all the uncertainty that the pandemic brought about. Therefore, more research is needed before we can really understand how the pandemic is affecting anxiety among teens.
Results also showed an interesting pattern of change with respect to depressive symptoms and stress levels. Depressive symptoms and levels of stress decreased slightly from before the pandemic to the first lockdown and then increased dramatically from the first to second lockdown. Although we cannot be sure at this point, one possible explanation for these findings is that teens were able to take a much-needed break from their busy and possibly overscheduled lives during the first lockdown, which results in some relief of depressive symptoms and stress. However, by the time the second lockdown occurred, teens may have been feeling demoralized and hopeless as the pandemic continued to take its toll on everyone, resulting in higher levels of stress and depressive symptoms.
Is perfectionism changeable in teenagers and did it change during the pandemic?
It appears that perfectionism can change over time as results revealed that socially prescribed perfectionism (believing that others demand perfection from you and are critical of you) has actually been increasing during the pandemic. This finding makes sense! For example, Dr. Gordon Flett and Dr. Paul Hewitt, who have been studying perfectionism for decades, discussed in their recent work (see Flett & Hewitt, 2020) that people may increase their perfectionism as a way to try and cope with the stress of the pandemic and to regain a sense of control, especially given all of the uncertainty that we have been dealing with during these difficult times. We should mention here that perfectionists often have a strong need to be in control at all times (see Flett et al., 1995). Yet, our findings also showed that self-oriented perfectionism (requiring perfection from the self) did not appear to change during the pandemic – at least up to the second lockdown when data collection stopped for this study.
Why did socially prescribed perfectionism change and not self-oriented perfectionism? One possible reason is that the teens in our sample tended to have high levels of self-oriented perfectionism even before the pandemic began so there really wasn’t much room for that type of perfectionism to change. Another possibility involves the context of the pandemic. During the lockdowns many teens were spending more time at home and often were living with their parents. This is important because new research has shown that young people are perceiving their parents to have higher expectations of them and to be more critical of them than previous generations (see Curran & Hill, 2022). Therefore, extra time at home with parents that may have had high expectations for their children and been worried about their children’s progress may have fueled higher lvels of socially prescribed perfectionism among teens.
Does perfectionism put teenagers at higher risk for mental health problems and greater stress during the pandemic?
The short and simple answer is yes! Teens who tended to demand perfection from themselves (self-oriented perfectionists) were more depressed, anxious, and stressed than those who did not tend to demand perfection from themselves over the course of the pandemic. Results also showed that when teens experienced higher than their typical levels of self-oriented perfectionism, they were also more anxious – but not more depressed or stressed. Teenagers who believed that others demanded perfection from them (socially prescribed perfectionists) were more depressed and stressed than those who did not have such beliefs during the pandemic. We also found that when teens experienced more of these beliefs than usual, they were more depressed – but not more anxious or stressed.
Finally, results showed that stress helped to explain why perfectionistic teens are more depressed and anxious than less perfectionistic teens during the pandemic. Perfectionistic teens reported being more stressed during the pandemic than less perfectionistic teens and those who were more stressed experienced more depression and anxiety.
Taken together, these findings support the idea that perfectionistic teens were more vulnerable to poorer mental health during the pandemic and that higher stress levels may partly explain why teens were not faring as well during these unprecedented times.
In Summary:
- Depressive symptoms and stress among teens decreased slightly from before the pandemic to the first government mandated lockdown in Ontario, Canada, but then increased dramatically from the first lockdown to the second lockdown.
- Anxiety did not change over the course of the pandemic, but this could be because the teens in this study were already highly anxious before the pandemic began so there may not have been enough room for meaningful change to take place.
- Perfectionistic teens were not faring as well during the pandemic. They were more depressed, anxious, and stressed than less perfectionistic teens.
- Higher levels of stress among perfectionistic teenagers helped to explain why perfectionistic teens were experiencing poorer mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extra Resources:
- https://www.anxietycanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/anxiety-bc-coping-strategies-v3-2.pdf
- https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-health-and-covid-19/coping-with-stress-and-anxiety
- https://www.anxietycanada.com/learn-about-anxiety/anxiety-in-youth/
- https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-a-z-mental-health-guide/anxiety/
PLEASE NOTE: The resources provided should be used as supplemental information to learn more about anxiety and the role you can play in supporting your child. If your child is struggling, please ensure you are reaching out for professional support beginning with your child’s Family Doctor or Pediatrician.
To learn more about this study, check out:
Molnar, D. S., Thai, S., Blackburn, M., Zinga, D., Flett, G. L., & Hewitt, P. L. (2023). Dynamic changes in perfectionism dimensions and psychological distress among adolescents assessed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Child Development, 94(1), 254-271. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13855