The media is full of reports that millennials are the "anxious generation."  Researches have reported increases in narcissism, stress, and a lack of attachment among the younger generation. According to the most recent global health estimates from the World Health Organization (2017), serious mental illness afflicts a record number of young people. In the United States, McMurdo, and the United Kingdom, young people are experiencing higher levels of depression, anxiety, and suicide ideation than they did a decade ago. They also report more loneliness.

It is possible that this simply the result of better awareness and acceptance of stress and mental illness - and that it is only appears to be an increase due to reporting bias.  How can we know if that is the case?

Curran and Hill argue that the increase is due to societal changes. They argue that the industrialized world has become preoccupied with comparing themselves to others. According to a Pew Research Center (2007) report, eighty-one percent of Americans born in the 1980's report that getting materially rich is among their most important life goals, a figure that is almost 20% higher than those born in the 1960's and 1970's. Young people also borrow more than did older generations at the same period of life span and spend, on average, a far greater proportion of their income on status possessions than did their parents (e.g., luxury vehicles and designer labels).

Curran and Hill argue that this has led to an increase in perfectionism. Perfectionism is broadly defined as a combination of excessively high personal standards and overly critical self-evaluations.

A model of multidimensional perfectionism was proposed by Hewitt and Flett (1991). In their model, perfectionism has three major components. First, there is self-oriented perfectionism where individuals hold unrealistic expectations of themselves and are highly critical of themselves. Secondly, there is socially prescribed perfectionism, where individuals believe that their environment is excessively demanding, that others judge them harshly, and that they must display perfection to secure approval. Finally, there is other-oriented perfectionism when individuals impose unrealistic standards on those around them and evaluate others critically.

Young people today perceive that others are more demanding of them, are more demanding of others, and are more demanding of themselves. Curran and Hill argue that this is due to modern society's emphasis on competitiveness, individualism, and irrational ideals of the perfectible self. In addition, social media may play a role.  Finally, the over-involvement of parents in their lives is also considered a factor.

The research below looks at how the level of perfectionism in university students has changed over the past generation. As perfectionism is linked to stress and poor mental health, the results are support for the idea that there is a higher prevalence of stress among young students today.

The researchers carried out a meta-analysis of 164 studies with a total sample size of 41,641 American, Canadian and British university students who completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale between 1989 and 2016. 70.92% of the sample was female.  The inclusion criteria were as follows:

• Participants were US, Canadian or UK university students between 18 and 25 years old
• Participants were not selected to be in the study because of maladaptive behaviour or mental illness
• The study included a sample that was not replicated elsewhere so that data was not included more than once.

The goal was to see how levels of perfectionism had changed over the 27 year period in cohort groups with the same age and generally same environment.

The results of the meta-analysis were as follows:

• 55% of university students in 2017 were above the 1989 mean self-oriented perfectionism score, which amounts to a 10% increase.
• Nearly two-thirds of university students in 2017 were above the 1989 mean socially prescribed perfectionism score, which amounts to a 32% increase.
• Nearly three-fifths of college students in 2017 were above the 1989 other-oriented perfectionism mean, which amounts to a 16% increase.
• Self-oriented perfectionism is typically highest among American university students. Socially prescribed perfectionism is typically highest among Canadian and British college students relative to American university students

The data supports the belief that recent generations of university students are demanding higher expectations of themselves and attaching more importance to perfection than previous generations. The large increase in socially prescribed perfectionism scores indicates that young people find their social context increasingly demanding and that they perceive that others judge them more harshly than in past generations.

The smallest change over time was observed for self-oriented perfectionism.  This could be because this type of perfectionism has been found to have greater heritability, so it may be less likely to change due to external factors. 

The study concludes that these changes in perfectionism correlate with increased levels of stress and mental illness among the younger generation.

The advantage of using a meta-analysis is the very large sample size. In addition, this study includes data obtained over a long period of time (27 years) and collected from different laboratories.  This study also includes data from three different English speaking cultures.

Meta-analyses are open to researcher bias.

The studies make use of a highly standardized test that has high reliability.

The study is not able to establish a cause and effect relationship between the cultural norms at the time of taking the test and one's level of perfectionism.  The study is correlational and demonstrates a trend, but it is not able to definitely explain the nature of the trend.

Although this study has been used to argue that young people today are more stressed than a generation ago, no actual measures of stress are obtained.  Although research indicates that perfectionism and stress are intricately linked, there is no measure in the study of physiological indicators of stress or self-reported levels of stress.

The studies used are also cross-sectional in nature. We do not know if the students in the 1980's now have higher levels of perfectionism as adults.  If society is the root of this increased stress, as Curran and Hill propose, it would be important to know if other generations are also increasing their scores on perfectionism, or is this only limited to university students.

The findings are restricted to a sample of white university students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. The findings cannot, therefore, be generalized to all young people.

Curran, T., & Hill, A. P. (2019). Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016. Psychological Bulletin, 145(4), 410–429. doi: 10.1037/bul0000138

Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psycho- pathology . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456–470. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.60.3.456