Perfectionism in students has become an epidemic. In today’s high-pressure society, younger generations are increasingly striving for unattainable standards, often at the expense of their mental health. Anxiety and depression are rising among students, especially in competitive academic environments like McGill University.
David Dunkley, Associate Professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry and Department of Psychology and Senior Researcher at the Lady Davis Institute, recently published a paper in the American Psychological Association that sheds light on how targeted interventions may provide a lifeline for perfectionistic students.
At the core of this study is the Perfectionism Coping Processes Model (PCPM), developed by Dunkley and his team to help participants better understand their daily emotional experiences. The novel intervention is the explanatory feedback intervention (EFI), which is a therapy session in which students receive personalized feedback based on their daily emotional experience. This intervention aims to support students with higher self-critical perfectionism.
The goal is to increase self-awareness surrounding daily mood fluctuations and provide students with the best targets to handle high-stress situations. The structured feedback process helps individuals identify emotional patterns that lead to distress, empowering them to shift from avoidance strategies to more constructive coping mechanisms.
Empowerment was one of the study’s key outcomes, with participants reporting feeling more informed, optimistic, and in control. Beyond feeling empowered, the intervention additionally improved participants’ coping skills. Specifically, it increased coping self-efficacy and encouraged problem-focused coping by actively addressing problems rather than avoiding them. A significant reduction in depressive and anxious symptoms was also observed, particularly because the intervention helped participants engage with their mental health more proactively.
“[EFI] is an individualized intervention,” Dunkley said in an interview with The Tribune. “Often, interventions are one-size-fits-all. Self-help books [are] just giving people modules, things to work on, lots of which doesn’t apply to them.”
The study highlights how tailored interventions, like the EFI, offer a more effective solution for perfectionistic individuals who might not benefit from generic approaches.
“Streamlining interventions is critical, [as] perfectionistic people have negative help-seeking attitudes and don’t tolerate interventions they don’t need,” Dunkley said.
The power of this research lies in its advocacy for individuals to become their own agents in addressing their mental health support.
“Let’s try to see how the person can help themselves, because they need to do that anyway,” Dunkley emphasized.
This approach differs from more traditional treatments like medication, by focusing on teaching patients how to navigate their daily lives and improve their mood gradually.
In addition, the study has significant clinical implications. EFI provides students with individualized feedback, helping them gain a deeper understanding of themselves, demystifying their mental health needs.
As one of the study’s key strengths, EFI “fast-tracks” treatment. Therapists often need several sessions to begin understanding a patient’s needs, especially if that patient is introverted. With the EFI, therapists can cover in one session what would normally be covered in multiple.
“If [the patient] already has something that shows them what they need to work on and explains it in a way that’s more constructive and destigmatizing, then hopefully they will be more open to and better informed to seek treatment,” Dunkley said.
Looking ahead, Dunkley and his team hope this type of intervention will become available to McGill students through the Student Wellness Hub.
Dunkley is launching a follow-up study in September, incorporating a new model, the Perfectionism and Emotion Regulation Processes Model (PERPM) with the PCPM framework, focusing on emotional regulation in perfectionism.
Ultimately, this study shows how a single-session intervention like EFI can significantly impact students struggling with perfectionism. This intervention is broadly applicable and has the potential to benefit anyone facing similar challenges.
By helping individuals understand their mental health in a personalized and empowering way, this research opens the door to more effective, streamlined mental health treatments that could transform how we approach perfectionism and other mental health challenges students face.