Are You a Perfectionist? Try Self-compassion

Self-compassion in a healthy way can help moderate the association between perfectionism and depression, reveals a new study.

The study was published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Madeleine Ferrari from Australian Catholic University, and colleagues.

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‘Self-compassion intervention programs can help reduce the effects of perfectionism and depression.’

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Perfectionistic people often push themselves harder than others to succeed, but can also fall into the trap of being self-critical and overly concerned about making mistakes.

When the perfectionist fails, they often experience depression and burnout.

In this study, Ferrari and colleagues considered whether self-compassion, a kind way of relating to oneself, might help temper the link between perfectionist tendencies and depression.

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The researchers administered anonymous questionnaires to assess perfectionism, depression, and self-compassion across 541 adolescents and 515 adults.

Their analyses of these self-assessments revealed that self-compassion may help uncouple perfectionism and depression.

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The replication of this finding in two groups of differently-aged people suggests that self-compassion may help moderate the link between perfectionism and depression across the lifespan.

The authors suggest that self-compassion interventions could be a useful way to undermine the effects of perfectionism, but future experimental or intervention research is needed to fully assess this possibility.

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"Self-compassion, the practice of self-kindness, consistently reduces the strength of the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and depression for both adolescents and adults," says lead author Madeleine Ferrari.

Source-Eurekalert