ANZCTR - Registration

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Trial registered on ANZCTR

Registration number

ACTRN12626001301358p

Ethics application status

Submitted, not yet approved

Date submitted

30/09/2026

Date registered

28/10/2026

Date last updated

28/10/2026

Date data sharing statement initially provided

28/10/2026

Type of registration

Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs

Public title

Optimisation of Perfectionism Micro-Interventions for Perfectionism and Disordered Eating Psychopathology in At-Risk Young Adults

Scientific title

Optimisation of Perfectionism Micro-Interventions for Perfectionism and Disordered Eating Psychopathology in At-Risk Young Adults

Additional trial identifiers [1]

Nil

Universal Trial Number (UTN)

Trial acronym

Related trial records

Health condition

Health condition(s) studied:

Perfectionism

Disordered eating

Condition category

Condition code

Mental Health

Other mental health disorders

Mental Health

Eating disorders

Intervention/exposure

Study type

Interventional

Description of the intervention or exposure

Participants will complete between 2 and 5 micro-interventions, each of which provides psychoeducation on one component of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for perfectionism (CBT-P) designed by clinical psychologists.
The first two micro-interventions provide general psychoeducation about perfectionism and its harms and will be completed by all participants.
Participants will then be randomly allocated to completed 1,2 or 3 additional micro-interventions covering additional components of CBT-P including unrealistic standards, self-criticism and expanding self-worth,
Content in the general psychoeducation modules will focus on introducing perfectionism, understanding the harms, identifying perfectionism in one's own life and completing basic motivational techniques for increasing willingness to change.
The unrealistic standards module provides psychoeducation on the difference between being setting high standards and unrealistic standards, the self-criticism-compassion module provides psychoeducation about being critical about oneself and how to respond compassionately, and the expanding self-worth module focuses on the impact of only focusing on achievement based values/interests and the impacts this can have, as well as how to expand one's vie of themselves to include more than just achievement.
All modules contain a combination of written information, videos and reflection activities including action plans to foster change.
Each intervention is delivered online via web-based survey platform Qualtrics in a self-guided format and takes approximately 10 minutes to complete. All allocated interventions will be completed over a one week period for all conditions.
The Multiphase Optimisation Strategy (MOST) Framework will be utilised whereby participants are randomly allocated to differing combinations of the interventions so that all possible combinations are tested, enabling the most efficient combination of intervention components to be established and inform future designs. This means a total of 8 conditions (psychoed + self-compassion + high standards + expanding self-worth, psychoed + self-compassion + high standards, psychoed + self-compassion + expanding self-worth, psychoed + self-compassion, psychoed + high standards + expanding self-worth, psychoed + high standards, psychoed + expanding self-worth) will be tested.

Intervention code [1]

Prevention

Description of the comparator or control

The comparator group will receive only the first 2 micro-interventions focusing on perfectionism psychoeducation broadly, with none of the additional modules. Like the intervention conditions, the comparator group will have one week to complete their micro-interventions.

Control group

Dose comparison

Outcomes

Primary outcome [1]

Perfectionism

Timepoint [1]

Baseline, post-intervention completion, 1-month follow-up

Primary outcome [2]

Perfectionism

Timepoint [2]

Baseline, post-intervention completion, 1-month follow-up

Secondary outcome [1]

Eating Disorder Psychopathology

Timepoint [1]

Baseline, 1-week post-intervention completion, 1-month post-intervention completion

Secondary outcome [2]

Depression

Timepoint [2]

Baseline, post-intervention completion, 1-month follow-up

Secondary outcome [3]

Anxiety

Timepoint [3]

Baseline, post-intervention completion, 1-month follow-up

Secondary outcome [4]

Self-compassion

Timepoint [4]

Baseline, post-intervention completion, 1-month follow-up

Secondary outcome [5]

Hope

Timepoint [5]

Baseline, post-intervention completion, 1-month follow-up

Eligibility

Key inclusion criteria

Eligibility criteria include: 1) being aged 18 to 25 years, 2) having adequate literacy levels in English, 3) internet/computer access, and 4) meeting a cut-off score of 47 or more using the Weight Concern Scale (Killen et al., 1996), demonstrating a participant is at risk of developing an eating disorder.

Minimum age

18 Years

Maximum age

25 Years

Sex

Both males and females

Healthy volunteers

Key exclusion criteria

Nil

Study design

Purpose of the study

Prevention

Allocation to intervention

Randomised controlled trial

Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)

Participants will be randomised after first establishing eligibility. There will be no restriction on randomisation. As randomisation will occur via Qualtrics, allocation will be concealed from the research team until the intervention has been assigned.

Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)

Randomisation will be completed using the inbuilt randomisation function on Qualtrics (i.e. sequence generation is random through this platform).

Masking / blinding

Open (masking not used)

Who is / are masked / blinded?

Intervention assignment

Factorial

Other design features

Phase

Not Applicable

Type of endpoint/s

Statistical methods / analysis

Continuous primary and secondary outcomes will be analysed using baseline adjusted linear mixed-model analyses to retain all participants randomised to a condition. Between-group effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals will be calculated. Demographic information and categorical variables will be explored with descriptive statistics. To assess sample size required, we considered a small (0.25) effect size difference between the interventions for our primary outcomes. A power analysis using a power level of 0.80 and an alpha of .05 and expecting a 70% retention (Robinson et al., 2024) revealed that 91 participants were required per condition (Hedeker et al., 1999). Therefore, a total of 728 participants will be recruited.

Recruitment

Recruitment status

Not yet recruiting

Date of first participant enrolment

Anticipated

28/10/2026

Actual

Date of last participant enrolment

Anticipated

4/11/2026

Actual

Date of last data collection

Anticipated

4/12/2026

Actual

Sample size

Target

728

Accrual to date

Final

Recruitment in Australia

Recruitment state(s)

ACT,NSW,NT,QLD,SA,TAS,WA,VIC

Recruitment outside Australia

Country [1]

New Zealand

State/province [1]

Country [2]

Canada

State/province [2]

Country [3]

South Africa

State/province [3]

Country [4]

United States of America

State/province [4]

Country [5]

United Kingdom

State/province [5]

Funding & Sponsors

Funding source category [1]

Government body

Name [1]

National Health and Medical Research Council

Address [1]

Country [1]

Australia

Primary sponsor type

University

Name

Flinders University

Address

Country

Australia

Secondary sponsor category [1]

University

Name [1]

Flinders University Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing

Address [1]

Country [1]

Australia

Ethics approval

Ethics application status

Submitted, not yet approved

Ethics committee name [1]

Flinders University Human Research Ethics Committee

Ethics committee address [1]

https://staff-projects.flinders.edu.au/research-support/integrity/human-ethics

Ethics committee country [1]

Australia

Date submitted for ethics approval [1]

24/09/2026

Approval date [1]

Ethics approval number [1]

Summary

Brief summary

Perfectionism, holding oneself to excessively high standards alongside harsh self-criticism, is rising among young people and is a transdiagnostic risk factor for anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as being associated with poorer wellbeing, stress, and burnout.  

Research has begun to develop brief, self-guided and online interventions to better which help address perfectionism, However, it is currently unknown which components of perfectionism interventions are most effective, as there are few if any trials that isolate and compare them. 

The proposed project addresses this gap in young adults aged 18 to 25 years. Using the Multiphase Optimisation Strategy (MOST) framework, we will test the individual and combined effects of common perfectionism intervention components delivered as brief online "micro-interventions", In doing so, we aim to identify the most effective and efficient combination, to inform the design of accessible, low-cost interventions for perfectionism that can produce change in the shortest time possible, better meeting the needs of young people and offering potential preventative benefit for serious mental health problems.

Trial website

Trial related presentations / publications

Public notes

Contacts

Principal investigator

Name

Prof Tracey Wade

Address

Flinders University, GPO Box 2100. Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Country

Australia

Phone

+61 8 82013736

Fax

[email protected]

Contact person for public queries

Name

Tracey Wade

Address

Flinders University, GPO Box 2100. Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Country

Australia

Phone

+61 8 82013736

Fax

[email protected]

Contact person for scientific queries

Name

Tracey Wade

Address

Flinders University, GPO Box 2100. Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Country

Australia

Phone

+61 8 82013736

Fax

[email protected]

Data sharing statement

Will the study consider sharing individual participant data?

Yes

Will there be any conditions when requesting access to individual participant data?

Persons/groups eligible to request access:
• Anyone
Conditions for requesting access:
• No requirements

What individual participant data might be shared?

• All de-identified individual participant data

What types of analyses could be done with individual participant data?

• Any type of analysis (i.e. no restrictions on data re-use)

When can requests for individual participant data be made (start and end dates)?

From:
At the end of the study
To:
No end date

Where can requests to access individual participant data be made, or data be obtained directly?

• By accessing Prof Tracey Wade's OSF page. (https://osf.io/rtzv3/)

Are there extra considerations when requesting access to individual participant data?

What supporting documents are/will be available?

No Supporting Document Provided

Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually

No documents have been uploaded by study researchers.

Documents added automatically

No additional documents have been identified.

Trial Review

Documents added manually

Documents added automatically