Loades, Maria E, Rimes, Katharine A, Lievesley, Kate et al. · Psychology & health · 2019 · DOI
This study looked at whether perfectionism and unhelpful ways of thinking about emotions might be connected to ME/CFS in teenagers and their parents. Researchers compared 121 adolescents with ME/CFS to teenagers with asthma and healthy teenagers, measuring their perfectionism and attitudes toward emotions. Interestingly, teenagers with ME/CFS did not show significantly more perfectionism than the other groups, but the study did find that when mothers had unhelpful beliefs about emotions, their teenagers were more likely to have similar beliefs.
Understanding psychological factors associated with ME/CFS in adolescents is important for developing effective interventions. This study provides evidence that parental psychological factors—particularly how parents think about emotions and perfectionism—may play a role in maintaining CFS symptoms in teenagers, suggesting that family-focused interventions might be worth exploring.
This study does not prove that perfectionism or emotion beliefs cause ME/CFS, as adolescent perfectionism and emotion beliefs did not predict fatigue severity or physical functioning changes. The cross-sectional analysis of individual perfectionism does not establish causal mechanisms, and the relatively small asthma control group (N=27) limits generalizability. Correlation between parental and adolescent emotion beliefs does not clarify the direction of influence.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Loades, Maria E, Rimes, Katharine A, Lievesley, Kate, Ali, Sheila, & Chalder, Trudie (2019). Perfectionism and beliefs about emotions in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome and their parents: a preliminary investigation in a case control study nested within a cohort.. Psychology & health. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1579331
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-loades-2019-perfectionism-beliefs,
author = {Loades, Maria E and Rimes, Katharine A and Lievesley, Kate and Ali, Sheila and Chalder, Trudie},
title = {Perfectionism and beliefs about emotions in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome and their parents: a preliminary investigation in a case control study nested within a cohort.},
journal = {Psychology & health},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1080/08870446.2019.1579331},
note = {PubMed: 30821511},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loades-2019-perfectionism-beliefs},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loades-2019-perfectionism-beliefs
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