ArticleBMC medical education2017
Is perfect good? - Dimensions of perfectionism in newly admitted medical students.
Article in BMC medical education, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Depressive Symptoms Among Higher Education Students in Germany-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Public health reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Taxing working memory during laparoscopic training: reducing the impact of perfectionistic concerns on skill learning.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Trial
- Self-oriented perfectionism and psychological well-being in medical students: cross-sectional indirect associations involving perceived cognitive flexibility and shame.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Concerns of first-year medical students regarding their future profession: an international study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Assessing and Evaluating the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model: Social Support, Loneliness, and Distress Among Undergraduate, Law, and Medical Students.Journal of psychoeducational assessment · 2024Article
- The triangle of anxiety, perfectionism, and academic procrastination: exploring the correlates in medical and dental students.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Multidimensional perfectionism trends among various core and allied health care professionals in a major Indian metropolitan city of Western India.Journal of education and health promotion · 2023Article
- The Almost Perfect Scale in medical students: factor analysis, measurement invariance, and profile analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- A longitudinal cohort study observed increasing perfectionism and declining resilience, ambiguity tolerance and calling during medical school which is not explained by student personality.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- The effects of medical students' self-oriented perfectionism on academic procrastination: the mediating effect of fear of failure.Korean journal of medical education · 2022Article
- The Protective Role of Self-Compassion in the Relationship between Perfectionism and Burnout in Portuguese Medicine and Dentistry Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Associations Between Maladaptive Perfectionism and Life Satisfaction Among Chinese Undergraduate Medical Students: The Mediating Role of Academic Burnout and the Moderating Role of Self-Esteem.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- The erosion of ambiguity tolerance and sustainment of perfectionism in undergraduate medical training: results from multiple samplings of a single cohort.BMC medical education · 2020Article
- Perfectionism, impostor phenomenon, and mental health in medicine: a literature review.International journal of medical education · 2020Review
- Use of Personality Frameworks in Health Science Education.American journal of pharmaceutical education · 2020Review
- Need for cognitive closure, tolerance for ambiguity, and perfectionism in medical school applicants.BMC medical education · 2020Article
- The relationship between perfectionism and symptoms of depression in medical school applicants.BMC medical education · 2019Article
- Longitudinal development of different dimensions of perfectionism in undergraduate medical students with respect to their medical school admission procedure.GMS journal for medical education · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSociety expects physicians to perform perfectly but high levels of perfectionism are associated with symptoms of distress in medical students. This study investigated whether medical students admitted to medical school by different selection criteria differ in the occurrence of perfectionism.
methodsNewly enrolled undergraduate medical students (n = 358) filled out the following instruments: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS-H), Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS-F), Big Five Inventory (BFI-10), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7). Sociodemographic data such as age, gender, high school degrees, and the way of admission to medical school were also included in the questionnaire.
resultsThe 298 participating students had significantly lower scores in Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism than the general population independently of their way of admission to medical school. Students who were selected for medical school by their high school degree showed the highest score for Adaptive Perfectionism. Maladaptive Perfectionism was the strongest predictor for the occurrence symptoms of depression and anxiety regardless of the way of admission.
conclusionsStudents from all admission groups should be observed longitudinally for performance and to assess whether perfectionism questionnaires might be an additional useful instrument for medical school admission processes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.