Perfectionism and athletes’ mental health: The mediating role of self-compassion

Perfectionism is common among athletes and may increase vulnerability to mental health problems. Using Multi-States (MuSt) theory and Compassion Focused Therapy as theoretical frameworks this study examined the relationships between two perfectionism dimensions – strivings and concerns – and athletes’ mental health determinants, namely functional psychobiosocial states as adaptive, and dysfunctional states, psychological distress, and shame evaluations as poor mental health indicators. Self-compassion, fear of self-compassion and inflexible forms of responding to self-critical thoughts were tested as mediators. Participants were 693 Finnish competitive athletes (248 men, 443 women; M age = 23.45 years, SD = 8.06) who completed self-report measures. Structural equation modelling revealed that perfectionistic strivings were positively associated with functional states and negatively with poor mental health indicators. Conversely, perfectionistic concerns positively predicted the poor mental health indicators and negatively the functional states. Self-compassion mediated the relationships between both features of perfectionism and functional states but did not buffer the paths to poor mental health outcomes. However, the findings revealed fear of self-compassion to be a significant mediator between dimensions of perfectionism and the outcomes connected to mental health difficulties. Furthermore, unworkable actions as responses to self-critical thoughts mediated the paths from perfectionistic dimensions to dysfunctional states and shame evaluations, but responding with low mindful acceptance was not a significant mediator. The findings may inform development of more targeted interventions for perfectionistic athletes. The proposed model broadens the scope of MuSt theory and offers a foundation for theoretical advancement to understand the mechanisms underlying self-compassion in sport.