Research
Independent research and collaborations guided by evidence.
The institute advances independent studies and research collaborations in mental health, health, well-being, measurement, and the evaluation of treatments and interventions. Activities include secondary analysis of datasets, dedicated data collection, measurement development and studies of outcomes and processes.
Beyond overall OCD severity
Differential psychological associations across obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions
Field: Mental health, OCD, multidimensional measurement and models.
Design: Secondary data analysis. Sample: 390 participants; the main analysis included 337 participants.
The study examined whether relying on a single overall OCD severity score can obscure differences among symptom dimensions. Six OCI-R dimensions—checking, obsessing, washing, ordering, neutralizing and hoarding—were examined in relation to eight psychological variables: experiential avoidance, childhood neglect, childhood punishment, childhood sexual abuse, anxiety, depression, active coping and planning.
Main findings
The models explained 20.4%–43.7% of the variance across symptom dimensions. Anxiety showed the clearest differential pattern: its standardized association with obsessing was significantly stronger than its association with each of the other five OCI-R dimensions.
Interpretation and limitations
These findings suggest that psychological associations with OCD are not necessarily uniform across symptom dimensions, supporting the potential value of considering both overall severity and dimension-specific patterns. This was a cross-sectional study and does not establish causality. The main sample included participants with diagnosed OCD, self-reported OCD without a professional diagnosis, and participants not reporting OCD. Further research in clinical, longitudinal and intervention samples is needed.
Research directions in development
Multidimensional assessment in mental health; mechanisms and processes of therapeutic change; development of measurement tools; and empirical research on complementary and integrative approaches.