| Abstract: | There is widespread acceptance of the idea that aspects of parenting such as overprotectiveness and perfectionism contribute to the pathogenesis of obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD). Less resolved is whether the important dimensions of parenting are overprotectiveness, lack of acceptance, authoritarian style, discouragement of risk‐taking, and/or induction of guilt. It is also unclear whether different parenting characteristics are associated with the development of symptoms of OCD, compared to the traits of obsessive‐compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). OCD symptoms and OC personality traits were measured in a non‐clinical, student sample and correlated with students' report of parents' acceptance, disciplinary firmness, and psychological control (a construct which included psychological manipulation and guilt‐induction). Following the literature on both clinical and subclinical OCD and OCPD, we predicted that all three scales would correlate with OCD symptoms and OCPD traits. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that psychological control was the unique predictor, controlling for depressive symptoms. Unexpectedly, a controlling parenting style was not selectively associated with classical OC symptoms or OC personality traits. Rather, psychological control was associated with a broad‐spectrum of anxiety and depressive symptoms which cut across diagnostic boundaries. Findings are generally compatible with a single underlying vulnerability to both OCD and OCPD, as well as generalized/social anxiety and depressive symptoms, which can be shaped by cultural and familial factors to a specific clinical presentation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
