Perfectionism Is Fueling a Millennial Mental Crisis

NEW STUDY from York St. John University and University of Bath indicatesthat millennials are striving for perfectionism more than past generations of young people. The study, published in Psychological Bulletin, defined perfectionism as “an irrational desire to achieve along with being overly critical of oneself and others.”

from 1989, millennials are now 33 percent more likely to believe their environment demands perfection (“socially prescribed” perfectionism), 16 percent more likely to expect perfection from others (“other-oriented” perfectionism) and 10 percent more likely to harbor an irrational desire to be perfect themselves.

The blame has to lie with cell phones and social media, right? Not exactly, according to the researchers. The study concedes that increased use of social media does mean young people compare themselves more often to others, but it pays more attention to what it calls a growing culture of “meritocracy,” where academic systems encourage competition among students to be the best and, as a result, move up the cultural ladder.

“Meritocracy places a strong need for young people to strive, perform and achieve in modern life,” lead author, Thomas Curran, told Science Daily. “Young people are responding by reporting increasingly unrealistic educational and professional expectations for themselves. ”

Curran warns that this heightened competitiveness and perfectionism could be having a negative effect on the overall mental health of millennials, especially considering that their expectations for themselves grow more challenging to meet over time.