Questionable prospective effect of perfectionism on depression: reanalysis of a meta-analytic cross-lagged panel...

A recent meta-analysis claimed increasing prospective effects between perfectionism and depressive symptoms. However, the effects were estimated while adjusting for a prior measurement of the outcome variable and it is known that such adjusted cross-lagged effects may be spurious due to correlations with residuals and regression to the mean.

We reanalyzed the same meta-analytic data as in the challenged study with alternative regression models.

Alternative models indicated contradictory increasing and decreasing prospective effects of perfectionism on depressive symptoms.

The present divergent findings suggested that the prospective effect of perfectionism on depressive symptoms may have been spurious. Consequently, the conclusions in the challenged meta-analysis, and the vulnerability model of perfectionism and depressive symptoms in general, can be called into question. It is important for researchers to be aware of the limitations of cross-lagged panel analyses, and of correlations in general, in order not to overinterpret findings.