How does perfectionism develop?<\/strong><\/p>\nPerfectionism is a societal issue, Sarah explains, that is often caused when children are pushed to succeed from a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a pressure heap that builds from early on. We see clinical perfectionism occurring in children from early primary-school age \u2013 particularly if their parents are perfectionists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are girls more prone to perfectionism than boys?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no evidence to suggest a gender link, but the pressure of social media \u2013 the amount of \u2018likes\u2019 for an Instagram selfie, for example \u2013 has made many young women more obsessive about their appearance, and perfectionism is definitely a risk factor for eating disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perfectionism is a double-edged sword. Children who obsessively strive for the highest standards can suffer from burn-out (think child tennis prodigies), but perfectionism is also linked with procrastination. A child may continually postpone doing their homework, for example, to avoid mistakes and the risk of self-criticism and anxiety.<\/p>\n
What parents can do about it<\/strong><\/p>\nParent-led approaches are vital, Sarah says.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents can model a balanced approach. Show your child that it\u2019s healthy to try hard, to strive for achievement, but that you\u2019re still a good person if you don\u2019t reach the pinnacle \u2013 that you\u2019re more than just how well you do at achieving your goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother idea is for your child get involved in an activity in which they\u2019ll develop new skills, while recognising they won\u2019t reach the highest standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will help to instil a balanced approach to accomplishment. Just enjoying listening to music, rather than needing to play a musical instrument well. Having a balanced life and ensuring there\u2019s down-time to relax.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keep up with new research<\/strong><\/p>\nPsychologists have been studying perfectionism only since the 1990s. Interestingly, researchers are still to examine treatments for perfectionism that support academic achievement. However, schools are becoming increasingly aware of the problem, and, despite not attracting the research funding it deserves, clinical perfectionism is gaining attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we\u2019re going to prevent later mental health problems and under-achievement due to perfectionism, we need to start interventions in childhood,\u201d Sarah says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also want young people to co-design the online intervention programs we develop for treating unhelpful perfectionism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah and her PhD student Amy O\u2019Brien are heavily involved in this field. Amy\u2019s current study is further examining internet treatment for perfectionism, focusing on female teenagers who are concerned about their body shape, weight and eating habits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The prevalence of \u2018unhealthy\u2019 perfectionism has increased over the past 30 years, and could be affecting your child’s academic performance and general wellbeing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4266,"featured_media":8433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-8432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/perfectionism-article_parent-hub_shutterstock_1512343979-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Nik","last_name":"Malane","display_name":"Nik Malane"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 05:53:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8432"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=8432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}