Association between Perfectionism, Self-Compassion And Anxiety among Medical Students

Abstract

Anxiety in medical students has been a concern in Pakistan since long. Existing literature has identified several demographic factors contributing to this dilemma in Pakistani medical students (Khan et al., 2006; Shah et al., 2010) , however, personality level factors have been over-looked and are thus under-researched. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the association between dimensions of perfectionism and anxiety as well as the mediating role of self-compassion between perfectionism and anxiety in medical students studying in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Convenience Sampling was utilized to collect data from 444 participants studying in Government and Private medical colleges in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. The Short Almost perfect scale, Self compassion scale –SF and DASS- Anxiety subscale were used to measure perfectionism, self compassion and anxiety respectively. Findings of the study revealed significant associations between the study variables. Maladaptive perfectionism showed a positive correlation with anxiety while self-compassion showed a negative correlation with both perfectionism and anxiety. Adaptive perfectionism showed a weak but positive association with anxiety. All correlations were statistically significant. Maladaptive perfectionism and low self-compassion were significant predictors of anxiety and together accounted for 22% variance in outcome. Self-compassion was found to partially mediate the link between perfectionism and anxiety. The findings highlight that for medical students who struggle with self-criticism and have high levels of maladaptive perfectionism, self-compassion may help reduce the risk of developing anxiety. Cultivating SC rather than trying to rid of Perfectionism might help medical students reap benefits of perfectionism while being protected from its negative influence. Thus future research would benefit from observing the effect of self-compassion focused training for medical students and their teachers.