College students feel more pressure to be perfect than they did a generation ago, finds research published in Psychological Bulletin. That increase in perfectionism may be tied to social and economic factors such as rising inequality and slowing economic growth, the researchers found.

“Perfectionism is a public health risk—it’s associated with increased depression and anxiety,” said lead author Thomas Curran, Ph.D., of the London School of Economics and Political Science. “If we want to tackle the youth mental health crisis, we need to focus on these cultural and economic factors.”

In previous research, Curran and his colleagues found rising rates of perfectionism in college students through 2017. In the current study, they wanted to see whether the rise had continued since then and explore the reasons behind it.