The relationships between perfectionism and symptoms of depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Systematic review and meta-analysis of observational correlational studies
PubMed 37955236 · doi:10.1080/16506073.2023.2277121
What was done
Systematic review and meta-analysis of 416 studies including 113,118 participants aged 17 to 90 years (mean age 23.83) evaluating associations of perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns with symptoms of depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, task anxiety, and OCD in adults.
What was found
Perfectionistic concerns demonstrated significant medium correlations with anxiety, OCD, and depressive symptoms (pooled r = .38 to .43). Perfectionistic strivings demonstrated significant small correlations with OCD, depression, and all anxiety outcomes (pooled r = .10 to .21), but no association with social anxiety.
Why it matters
Synthesizes a large body of evidence across multiple disorders, confirming that perfectionistic concerns are more strongly linked to psychological distress than perfectionistic strivings.
Limits
Based on observational and correlational data, which cannot establish causality. The mean age of 23.83 indicates heavy representation of young adults. The abstract does not provide confidence intervals, heterogeneity measures, or distinctions between clinical and non-clinical samples.