The role of perfectionism in music performance anxiety within university piano majors in China

Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) is a recurring issue for some musicians in the process of accomplishing the demanding coordination of physical and psychological tasks that music performance requires. Several studies have reported a correlation between higher levels of perfectionism in musicians and greater likelihood of experiencing music performance anxiety (Kenny 2011; Patston and Osborne 2016). Although multiple factors have been identified as contributing to the development of MPA among Chinese piano students, especially among undergraduate and postgraduate learners majoring in music at universities, no current study has offered a comprehensive analysis of its root causes (Yang 2006) and this paper will contribute towards it. In the context of China’s Confucian socio-cultural norms, education and personal performance have been highly valued. The following four-words idiom and Confucian saying from the Analects vividly describes the attitude Confucius pursues in learning: “Have an insatiable desire to learn” (); “Being curious and fond of learning and not ashamed to learn from one’s inferiors.” (). However, the ultimate pursuit of perfectionism in personal performance and the perception of discrepancy between higher perfectionist criteria and performance would lead to considerably higher level of anxiety (Mor et al. 1995; Flett et al. 1998). Therefore, this current study investigates the roles of different forms of perfectionism on MPA amongst Chinese university students majoring in piano. An online survey of 195 students from five universities in China was carried out in 2021. The researcher conducted both correlational and multiple regression analyses on different sub-scales of perfectionism and dimensions of MPA. Regarding perfectionism and MPA, students who demonstrated more socially prescribed perfectionism traits were more likely to experience negative cognition and fear of other’s scrutiny as featured in MPA. Further analyses showed that both Self-oriented and Socially prescribed perfectionism are positive predictors of MPA. The findings of this study presented here may provide new clues to analyse the roles of perfectionism in MPA in the Chinese context.