Maladaptive and Adaptive Perfectionism Impact Psychological Wellbeing Through Mediator Self-Efficacy Versus Resilience

The transition through university is often challenging and can negatively impact students’ mental health. Identifying protective factors and opportunities aimed at promoting students’ psychological wellbeing is therefore paramount. Maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism have been found to impact students’ psychological wellbeing. However, less is known about how sociocognitive factors such as self-efficacy and resilience impact this relationship. The current study investigated whether self-efficacy and resilience mediate the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism, adaptive perfectionism and psychological wellbeing, controlling for gender, study mode, study method and COVID-19 lockdowns. Australian university students (N = 193; 86.53% female) aged 18–66 (M = 27.80, SD = 10.45) studying full-time (68.39%) and online (72.02%) completed the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Brief Resilience Scale and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. The indirect effect of maladaptive perfectionism on psychological wellbeing through self-efficacy was significant (b = -0.09, SE = .03, 95% CI [-0.15, -0.04]). The indirect effect of adaptive perfectionism on psychological wellbeing through self-efficacy was also significant (b = 0.09, SE = .04, 95% CI [0.02, 0.18]). However, resilience did not indirectly impact the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism, adaptive perfectionism and psychological wellbeing. This study demonstrates the importance of building self-efficacy for maladaptive and adaptive perfectionist students and highlights an opportunity for universities to create self-efficacy-based programs to promote students’ psychological wellbeing.