The association between stressful experiences and OCD symptoms in young adults at transdiagnostic risk

It is unclear whether there is a specific association between stressful experiences and obsessive-compulsive symptoms or whether this relationship is due to stressful experiences increasing risk for psychopathology generally.

The current study examined the association between stressful experiences and obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions, while adjusting for coexisting psychiatric symptoms and psychological distress in a young adult transdiagnostic at-risk sample.

Forty-three participants completed self-report measures assessing obsessive-compulsive symptoms, stressful experiences, and a range of other psychiatric symptoms. Regression models examined the relationship between stressful experiences and different obsessive-compulsive symptoms dimensions (i.e., symmetry, fear of harm, contamination, and unacceptable thoughts), adjusting for the influence of coexisting psychiatric symptoms and psychological distress.

The results showed that there was an association between stressful experiences and obsessive-compulsive symptoms dimension of symmetry. Symptoms of borderline personality disorder were positively associated with the obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions of symmetry and fear of harm symptoms. Symptoms of psychosis were found to be negatively associated with the obsessive-compulsive symptoms dimension of fear of harm.

These findings have implications for understanding the psychological mechanisms that underlie symmetry symptoms and highlight the need to study OCS dimensions separately to inform more precise, mechanism-targeted interventions.