An investigation into the role of attachment insecurities in obsessive-compulsive symptoms

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses the associations between adult attachment and OCD symptoms in light of current cognitive-behavioural theories of OCD. The role of attachment system in OCD has been increasingly recognised. The aim of this paper was to investigate and evidence for direct and indirect relations between attachment insecurities, obsessional beliefs and OCD symptoms. Data were collected from a sample of university students (N = 334) in a cross-sectional research design. Adjusting for age, sex, income, paternal education and maternal education, attachment anxiety and avoidance in combination with obsessional beliefs (responsibility/threat estimation, perfectionism/certainty and importance/control of thoughts) were regressed onto obssessionality using logistic regression analysis. One-way MANOVA comparisons of obsessionality and obsessive beliefs were run across four attachment styles. Finally, the affect regulation model of attachment theory was refined and tested in relation to OCD symptomatology. Attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance significantly contributed to severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. More specifically, respondents with fearful and preoccupied attachment styles reported greater scores on obsessive-compulsive symptomatology and obsessional beliefs. Using a structural modelling approach, we found responsibility/threat estimation significantly contributed to obsessional symptomatology via attachment anxiety and avoidance.

KEYWORDS:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• interpersonal theory of OCD
• affect regulation
• adult attachment
• prevention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Murat Boysan is assistant professor at Yüzüncü Yıl University, Department of Psychology. He teaches introductory psychology courses at Faculty of Social Sciences. He also contributes to graduate programme of counselling psychology and teaches theories of counselling and psychometrics. He is carrying out research activities in collaboration with Faculty of Education at Yüzüncü Yıl University.

Zekeriya Çam is Dr lecturer at Muş Alparslan University, Faculty of Educational Sciences. Personality, cognitive psychology and educational psychology are amongst his research interests.

ORCID

Murat Boysan http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6244-8378