LAUSR

Research investigating the compulsive, overwhelming need to be perfect (and to expect perfection from others) has burgeoned over the past three decades (e.g., Curran and Hill, 2019). This work has demonstrated that perfectionistic behavior, particularly overly harsh evaluations of performance, is often associated with elevated risk for mental health concerns (e.g., depressive symptoms, anxiety; e.g., Limburg et al., 2017) and poor health outcomes (e.g., cardiovascular illness; Molnar et al., 2012). One mental health concern that has received comparatively less attention in the literature in relation to the need to be perfect is nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). NSSI refers to deliberate, self-inflicted alteration or damage to one’s body tissue without suicidal intent (International Society for the Study of Self-injury, 2018). Although existing research on the link between perfectionism and NSSI has been well summarized (see Gyori and Balazs, 2021), clearly defined priorities for future research in this area are lacking. In the present paper, we underscore why additional research is necessary and offer several specific promising research directions.