Cognitive predictors of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in adolescence: a preliminary investigation

This study examined relations among responsibility attitudes, metacognitive beliefs, and obsessive-compulsive (O-C) symptoms in youth. One hundred sixty-six nonclinical youth (ages 13 to 17 years) completed the following: Responsibility Attitude Scale (RAS; Salkovskis et al., 2000); Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire-Adolescent Version (MCQ-A; Cartwright-Hatton et al., 2004); Children's Depression Inventory-Short Form (CDI-S; Kovacs, 1985); Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS; Reynolds & Richmond, 1978); the Leyton Obsessional Inventory-Child Version Survey Form (LOI-CVS; Berg, Whitaker, Davies, Flament, & Rapoport, 1988). Participants endorsed a range of responsibility and metacognitive beliefs, and both responsibility and metacognition were positively correlated with O-C symptoms. However, when age, sex, and depression were controlled, only metacognition was a predictor of O-C symptoms. The findings suggest metacognition and responsibility may be important correlates of O-C symptoms in youth.