Parenting style and obsessive-compulsive symptoms and personality traits in a student sample

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. Step-wise 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 (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.