It may seem like a nebulous assertion that college students today are more likely to be perfectionists than generations before them. But new research shows perfectionism is indeed on the upswing — and it could be affecting the mental health of people in this age group.
Researchers analyzed data from American, Canadian and British college students who completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, a test measuring perfectionism across generations. The test included three measures of perfectionism:
— Self-oriented (irrational need for perfection)
— Socially prescribed (thinking others expect a lot from them)
— Other-oriented (putting unrealistic standards on other people)
Data indicated that between 1989 and 2016, self-oriented perfectionism ticked up by 10 percent, followed by 33 percent for socially prescribed perfectionism and 16 percent for other-oriented perfectionism. This research was published recently in Psychological Bulletin, an American Psychological Association journal.
Thomas Curran, lead study author and lecturer at the University of Bath in the U.K., said in a statement that millennials feel pressure to perfect themselves partly out of social media use that leads them to compare themselves to others. This theory, though, he said hasn’t been tested and research is required to confirm it’s true.
Still, young people are responding to the world around them.
“Meritocracy places a strong need for young people to strive, perform and achieve in modern life,” Curran continued in the statement. “Young people are responding by reporting increasingly unrealistic educational and professional expectations for themselves. As a result, perfectionism is rising among millennials.”
This need for perfection could be affecting college students’ mental health, according to co-author Andrew Hill of York St John University in the U.K. Hill pointed to higher student depression, anxiety and suicidal thought levels compared to a decade prior.
According to the 2014 National Survey of College Counseling Centers, 52 percent of respondents said patients “had severe psychological problems” — up from 44 percent in just 2013.
Hill suggested both schools and policymakers work on limiting competition for the sake of their students’ mental health.
“Today’s young people are competing with each other in order to meet societal pressures to succeed and they feel that perfectionism is necessary in order to feel safe, socially connected and of worth,” Curran added.
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More of Today’s College Students Striving for Perfection, Study Says originally appeared on usnews.com
