Employee perfectionism and its impact on mental health and well-being: Evidence from Hungary

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Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines how two forms of perfectionism – self-doubt-driven and purpose-driven – affect employees’ mental health and well-being. Our study distinguishes between maladaptive and adaptive perfectionism and examines their relationships with burnout and job satisfaction. A quantitative online survey was conducted in Hungary with 478 participants (67% women, with a mean age of 29) via social media. The survey covered the staff of both Hungarian and foreign-owned companies, which were of different sizes. Participants were employed adults selected to obtain a varied sample across regions, education levels, and job positions. Data were analyzed using t-tests, ANOVA, factor analysis, and K-means clustering in SPSS to evaluate three hypotheses regarding the relationships between perfectionism and gender, job role, company ownership, burnout, and life satisfaction. Results showed that self-doubt-driven perfectionism strongly correlated with a higher burnout rate, whereas purpose-driven perfectionism was linked to greater life satisfaction. Contrary to assumptions, demographic factors such as gender, role, or company ownership did not consistently predict perfectionism levels. Two main perfectionism patterns – demanding perfection and doubt-driven – were identified, each producing different psychological outcomes.

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    • Table 1. Structure of the questionnaire: Demographics, perfectionism, and burnout measures
    • Table 2. Respondent characteristics by demographic and organizational factors (N = 478)
    • Table 3. Comparison of the private aspects of perfectionism across demographic and organizational factors (t-test, ANOVA, p = 0.05)
    • Table 4. Factor analysis results for perfectionism dimensions
    • Table 5. Cluster analysis of perfectionism dimensions
    • Table 6. The number of respondents in each cluster
    • Table 7. Summary of hypothesis testing
    • Conceptualization
      Erika Varga, Arnold Toth
    • Formal Analysis
      Erika Varga, Arnold Toth
    • Project administration
      Erika Varga, Hanna Torok, Arnold Toth
    • Resources
      Erika Varga
    • Supervision
      Erika Varga, Arnold Toth
    • Writing – original draft
      Erika Varga, Hanna Torok, Arnold Toth, Tímea Juhász
    • Writing – review & editing
      Erika Varga, Hanna Torok, Arnold Toth, Tímea Juhász
    • Data curation
      Hanna Torok, Tímea Juhász
    • Methodology
      Hanna Torok, Tímea Juhász
    • Software
      Hanna Torok, Tímea Juhász
    • Visualization
      Hanna Torok, Tímea Juhász
    • Investigation
      Arnold Toth
    • Validation
      Tímea Juhász