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Pathways to Inflated Responsibility Beliefs in Adolescent Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Preliminary Investigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2010

Peter J. Lawrence  and
Tim I. Williams
Peter J. Lawrence*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK
Tim I. Williams
Affiliation:
University of Reading, UK
*
Reprint requests to Peter Lawrence, Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK. E-mail: pete.lawrence@psych.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

Background: An inflated sense of responsibility is characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). No previous studies have investigated its origins. Five potential pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs have been proposed; these are tested in this study. Method: A novel measure, the Origins Questionnaire for Adolescents (OQA), was developed to assess experiences on these five pathways. Reliability of the OQA was investigated. The experiences on the five pathways to inflated responsibility beliefs of 16 adolescents with a history of OCD were compared to 16 adolescents with no history of OCD. Parents also reported on adolescents' experiences on the five pathways. Results: Test-retest reliability was high. The internal consistency of the subscales was only partly satisfactory. The groups differed on one pathway; the clinical group reported a higher sense of responsibility for significant incidents with a negative outcome prior to onset of OCD. Conclusions: An inflated sense of responsibility, in combination with the occurrence of specific incidents, might act as a vulnerability factor for development of OCD. Future research should consider how to measure the subtle effects of experiences of responsibility over the course of development.

Keywords

Obsessive-compulsiveOCDdevelopmentinflated responsibility
Type
Brief Clinical Reports
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , March 2011 , pp. 229 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2010

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