Investigating the mediator roles of obsessive beliefs in the relationships between, attachment and obsessive compulsive symptoms

Objective: The present study aimed at investigating the relationships between attachment, obsessive beliefs and obsessive compulsive symptoms in Turkish normal sample. Moreover, examining the mediator roles of obsessive beliefs between attachment and obsessive compulsive symptoms was aimed. Methods: For these purposes 116 female and 108 male participants completed questionnaires related to research variables. Experience in Close Relationship Scale to evaluate attachment, Obsessive Belief Questionnaire to evaluate obsessive beliefs and Padua Inventory-Washington State University Revision to evaluate obsessive compulsive symptoms were used in this study. Results: A series of hierarchical regression analyses where gender and age were controlled. Findings of the analyses revealed that control variables (gender and age) only predict contamination obsession and cleaning compulsive symptoms. According to results, being female and older age are as a risk factor for this symptoms. The results provide evidence for the mediator role of responsibility/threat estimation of obsessive beliefs between anxiety of attachment and symptoms which are obsessional thoughts about harm to self/others, contamination obsessions and cleaning compulsions, dressing/grooming symptoms. Based on checking symptoms both responsibility/threat and perfectionism/uncertainty obsessive beliefs had the mediator role between anxiety of attachment and these symptoms. Although, avoidance of attachment and importance/control of thoughts predicted obsessional impulses to harm self/others by separately, there were not mediator effects in these analyses. Conclusion: To sum up according to results of this study attachment and obsessive beliefs follow different paths toward different obsessive compulsive symptoms. The results were discussed in the light of the related literature.