To be or not to be in a couple: perfectionism as a predictor

The creation and maintenance of a stable and long-lasting relationship are crucial for adult individual well-being, with single people reporting poorer mental health when compared to those engaged in romantic relationships. Among the factors that may predict the quality of romantic dyads, scholars have addressed dyadic perfectionism. However, few is known about which of the perfectionism dimensions better predicts the status of being single or engaged in a romantic relationship. The present study aims to verify whether perfectionism is associated with the relationship status, and which perfectionism dimension is involved. More specifically, the interpersonal aspects of dyadic perfectionism were expected to be positively associated with the probability of belonging to the “single status”. Contributions of demographic variables as well as effects of mental health symptoms were controlled as they are relevant factors influencing romantic relationships. A hierarchical logistic regression analysis was conducted to evaluate the predictive utility of age and gender (controlled for at Step 1), depression and anxiety (entered at Step 2) and intra-and interpersonal perfectionism dimensions (controlled at Step 3) to predict the participants’ relationship status (0 = single, 1 = romantic partner). Results suggested that perfectionism focused on the perceived perfectionistic expectations from the partner is associated with the increased likelihood to be single, a result that confirmed the close association between maladaptive perfectionism and relevant aspects of romantic relationships.