Perfectionism and burnout in university students from the UK and Ireland

Many students report being overwhelmed by the expectations they have for themselves or experience from others while studying at university. As such, we investigated the degree to which perfectionism – a trait increasing among university students – is related to academic burnout. Researchers at twelve universities provided samples of undergraduate students who completed an online questionnaire measuring perfectionism (perfectionistic strivings and perfectionistic concerns) and burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy) once towards the end of the academic year. Applying random-effects meta-analyses across samples showed that perfectionistic strivings had a small-to-medium positive relationship with exhaustion and small positive relationships with cynicism and efficacy. In addition, perfectionistic concerns had a medium-to-large, and medium, positive relationship with exhaustion and cynicism, and a small negative relationship with efficacy. The overall effect of perfectionism was positive, medium and large, for cynicism and exhaustion, and trivial for efficacy. The findings suggest that reducing perfectionism may offer a means of supporting student success and wellbeing.