After my previous blog about the rise in perfectionism, I received the same question several times: how does that fit with the declining school performance we are seeing in many countries? If young people are becoming increasingly perfectionistic, shouldn’t they actually be performing better?

It sounds logical, but it is based on a misunderstanding. Perfectionism is not the same as striving for quality or having high ambitions.

For many years, psychologists have distinguished between high standards on the one hand and perfectionistic concerns on the other. The latter involve a fear of making mistakes, constant self-doubt, and the feeling that others are only satisfied if you are perfect. It is primarily these perfectionistic concerns that are associated with mental health problems. The new meta-analysis found that it is precisely these concerns that have increased most: greater fear of making mistakes, more self-doubt, and a stronger sense that others constantly expect perfection.

That might sound like a recipe for working harder. However, research suggests that this form of perfectionism often goes hand in hand with procrastination, avoidance, rumination, and stress. People who are afraid of making mistakes may delay starting an assignment, spend excessive time polishing details, or choose safe tasks over more challenging ones. Those are not necessarily effective learning strategies.

There is another reason why the apparent contradiction disappears. School performance depends on much more than motivation or personality alone. The quality of instruction, prior knowledge, reading skills, curriculum, teacher shortages, distractions, sleep, and socioeconomic circumstances all play a role. So even if perfectionism increases, there is no reason to expect average achievement to rise or fall automatically. Much depends on the type of perfectionism involved.

Perhaps the combination is therefore less surprising than it first appears. Imagine young people feeling increasing pressure to be perfect while at the same time growing up in a world with more distractions, less time spent reading, and greater economic and social uncertainty. In that case, it is entirely possible for mental health problems to increase while academic performance comes under pressure.

Perfectionism is not the same as excellence. You can constantly feel that you are not good enough without performing any better. Perhaps that is precisely the problem.