The Relationship Between Perfectionism and Psychopathology: A Meta-Analysis.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Meta-analysis of observational/cross-sectional studies
PubMed 28026869 · doi:10.1002/jclp.22435
What was done
A systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the relationships between two dimensions of perfectionism (perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns) and various psychopathology outcomes. Outcomes analyzed included clinical diagnoses and symptoms of depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, deliberate self-harm, suicidal ideation, and general distress. Analyses incorporated meta-regression and accounted for data dependencies across 284 retrieved studies comprising 2,047 effect sizes, including comparisons across subscales of two perfectionism measures.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical effect sizes, correlation statistics, confidence intervals, or p-values. It qualitatively states that both perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns are associated with multiple forms of psychopathology.
Why it matters
This review aggregates a large body of literature supporting perfectionism as a transdiagnostic factor across diverse psychiatric symptoms and disorders.
Limits
The abstract provides no quantitative effect estimates or direct comparisons between the strivings and concerns dimensions. Information regarding participant demographics, clinical versus community sampling, longitudinal versus cross-sectional designs, and heterogeneity across included studies is not provided in the abstract.