Researchers from York St John University and the London School of Economics and Political Science examined how quickly perfectionism is growing among students. They analysed 307 studies covering more than 82,000 young people from three countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. The data covered the period from the 1980s to 2024. Although the studies differed from one another, the overall result was clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was not only about ambition, high standards, or the desire to achieve better results. The darker side of perfectionism was growing especially strongly<\/strong>: fear of failure<\/a>, excessive concern over mistakes, doubts about one\u2019s own actions, and the belief that others expect flawlessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The study\u2019s authors stress, however, that the rise in perfectionism involves not only fear of critical judgement from other people, but also growing ambition and demands placed on oneself, known as self-oriented perfectionism. In fact, it is the combination of these two forces that creates a particularly dangerous cocktail. Students are not only afraid of failing in the eyes of others. They also demand perfection from themselves with increasing severity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Importantly, the strength of the link between perfectionism and problems such as depression or anxiety has not weakened over time. This means that the more young people this trend touches, the greater the scale of harm across an entire generation. Even if not everyone meets the criteria for a clinical disorder, the consequences may be serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe turning point came after 2000<\/h3>\n\n\n\n