The Importance of Perfectionism to Chinese International Students and How This Affects Their Emotional and Mental Health

This study adopts a qualitative research approach, focusing on the mechanisms through which perfectionism affects the emotional and mental health of Chinese international students in the UK. Through in-depth interviews with three Chinese students and using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), three core themes of perfectionism manifestation were identified: unconscious patterns of perfectionist behavior, the shaping role of others and the social environment on perfectionism, and the complex impact of the experience of being an “outsider” in a cross-cultural context on perfectionist psychology.

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