The relation between perfectionism, hassles, coping, perceived social support, and psychological difficulties in university professors

Perfectionism has been linked to numerous forms of psychopathology in college and university students (Shafran & Mansell, 2001), however few studies have attempted to apply these findings to other important non-clinical populations. The present study investigated whether perfectionism was associated with psychological difficulties in 381 university professors in western Canada. Measures of coping, hassles, and perceived social support were also administered. Descriptive analyses of the data indicated that the overall means on the various measures were comparable to other sample populations, however gender differences were found on measures of psychological difficulties, perceived social support, and problem-focused coping. Correlational analyses revealed that perfectionism was significantly correlated with all variables except problem-focused coping. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that perfectionism, hassles, and avoidant coping accounted for a significant degree of variance in psychological difficulties. The results are discussed in terms of how perfectionism affects the health and professional lives of university professors.