News release

From: American Psychological Association

Young adults are more perfectionistic than ever before

Rising inequality, slowing economic growth fuel rise in perfectionism, study finds

College students feel more pressure to be perfect than they did a generation ago, finds research published by the American Psychological Association. That increase in perfectionism may be tied to social and economic factors such as rising inequality and slowing economic growth, the researchers found.

“Perfectionism is a public health risk – it’s associated with increased depression and anxiety,” said lead author Thomas Curran, PhD, of the London School of Economics and Political Science. “If we want to tackle the youth mental health crisis, we need to focus on these cultural and economic factors.”

The research was published in Psychological Bulletin.

In previous research, Curran and his colleagues found rising rates of perfectionism in college students through 2017. In the current study, they wanted to see whether the rise had continued since then and explore the reasons behind it. They analyzed data from 307 studies conducted between 1989 and 2024, with a total of more than 82,000 American, Canadian and British college students. All of the studies asked the students to rate themselves using one of two standard scales of perfectionism.

Overall, the researchers found increasing rates of self-reported perfectionism between 1989 and 2024. They also found that since the early 2000s, different aspects of perfectionism had increased at different rates: “Perfectionistic concerns” (fear of failure, indecisiveness, and fear of being negatively judged by others) increased much faster than “perfectionistic strivings” (the motivation to set extremely high standards and work hard to achieve them).  

The researchers also looked at how rates of perfectionism overlapped with economic conditions over time and across countries. They found that slowing GDP per capita was associated with higher rates of perfectionistic striving, while rising economic inequality was associated with steeper increases in perfectionistic concerns.

“When there’s a lack of economic opportunity, young people seem to compensate with striving,” Curran says. “And when inequality grows, what you see is that fear and worry about making mistakes and other people’s opinions start to become a more central feature of young people’s psychology.”

The researchers also found that the link between perfectionism and mental health remained stable over time – higher levels of perfectionism were associated with mental health symptoms, including depression and anxiety, irrespective of time period. Since perfectionism has increased over time, the researchers say, it may be a factor in increased mental health concerns.

“These findings provide additional context for recent debates about youth mental health,” Curran says. “Phones and social media have received a lot of the blame, but the rise in perfectionism predates social media. This research study suggests something deeper is at work.”