Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and distress in daily life: Mediating effects of social cognition about morality

Obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms occur in individuals with anxiety and mood disorders, even outside of formal diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Because OC symptoms commonly coexist alongside perseverative negative experiences (i.e., worry and depression), their unique contribution to distress in daily life is unclear. Moreover, OC symptoms might shape daily distress via pathways of social cognition related to morality (i.e., self-perceptions about virtue or vice), but previous studies of OC symptoms and morality have not accounted for overlap with how individuals perceive themselves in relation to others in terms of agency (i.e., competence) and communion (i.e., connection). Research has demonstrated links between OC symptoms and sensitivity to moral domains via scrupulosity symptoms and importance of moral facets, which raises questions around relationships between morality, OC symptoms, and distress. The present study aims to investigate links of OC symptoms to daily distress via self-perceptions of morality, agency, and communion. A clinical sample of individuals with anxiety and depressive disorders (N = 84) completed baseline measures of OC symptoms, worry, and depression, followed by one week of diary records of self-perceptions and distress during best and worst events of the day. Multilevel modeling results showed that, while controlling for depression and worry, OC symptoms uniquely predicted higher daily distress. Moreover, self-perceptions of negative and positive morality and low communion each uniquely mediated effects of baseline OC symptoms on daily distress. Thus, findings suggest unique contributions of OC symptoms and social cognition to distressing experiences of individuals seeking treatment for anxiety and depression.