Maladaptive Perfectionism and Religious Involvement Among Youth in the Western United States

Background and Purpose: Rising mental health problems among youth are a growing concern. In the United States between 2009 and 2019, youth seriously considering attempting suicide increased from 13.8% of 18.8%, while those reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness grew from 26.1% to 36.7%. One aspect that could be contributing to mental health problems among youth is maladaptive perfectionism, which has also been increasing in the past few decades. In contrast, religion and spirituality have been associated with positive mental health for youth. The current study examines and compares the effects of various measures of religious involvement on maladaptive perfectionism for youth in the Western United States.

Methods: The sample for this study was drawn from the Family Foundations of Youth Development Project, a longitudinal random sample following youth and one of their parents. Data on maladaptive perfectionism was collected in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Four items representing self-critical evaluations of performance were taken from the Short Form of the Almost Perfect Scale. Religiosity variables examined were church attendance, sabbath observance, personal prayer, having spiritual experiences, and having a warm relationship with God. Fifteen random-intercept cross-lag panel models were run for each of three maladaptive perfectionism measures (toxic, social, and total) and the five religiosity variables. Fifteen additional mediation models were run to examine the potential mediating effects of religiosity.

Results: For the entire sample, each of the religious involvement measures were associated with significantly less toxic and/or total maladaptive perfectionism (r ranged from -.222 to -.494). Latter-day Saints showed less total maladaptive perfectionism than their peers, with standardized β ranging from -.124 to -.15 across the models. For Latter-day Saints, this effect was strongly mediated through religious involvement, with significant indirect effects in four out of five variables for social perfectionism, and five out of five variables for toxic and total perfectionism models, with standardized β ranging from -.066 to -.234. The remaining direct effects were also significant in most models, with standardized β ranging from .099 to .232, indicating that for Latter-day Saints who do not engage with the religious variables, maladaptive perfectionism is the same or higher than their peers. The strongest mediating effect sizes were found for the sabbath observance and feeling a warm relationship to God.

Conclusions and Implications: Among our sample, religious involvement was associated with less maladaptive perfectionism. This suggests that those who are seeking to improve youth mental health should understand both the potential positive effects of religion as well as be sensitive to the potential for those not engaging in their religious practices to feel a greater sense of maladaptive perfectionism.