The relationships between perfectionism and symptoms of depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

Perfectionism is a transdiagnostic process associated with depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The focus of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine evidence for the association between perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns with symptoms of depression, general anxiety, social anxiety, task anxiety, and OCD in adults. A total of 416 studies were included, with 113,118 participants aged 17 to 90 years (M = 23.83). Perfectionistic concerns had significant medium correlations with anxiety, OCD and depressive symptoms (pooled r = .38 to .43). Perfectionistic strivings had significant, small correlations with OCD, depression and all anxiety outcomes (pooled r = .10 to .21), except social anxiety where there was no association. Results demonstrate perfectionistic concerns have a stronger relationship with psychological distress than perfectionistic strivings, but strivings are significantly related to distress. Future research should examine the causal relationships between perfectionism dimensions and psychopathology.

KEYWORDS:

• Perfectionism
• depression
• anxiety
• OCD
• meta-analysis

Disclosure statement

Sarah Egan and Roz Shafran receive royalties for the books Cognitive-behavioral treatment of perfectionism and Overcoming perfectionism: A self-help guide using scientifically supported cognitive behavioural techniques, second edition.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2023.2277121