The relationship between existential concerns, incompleteness, and insight with dimensions of obsessive-compulsive disorder in female students

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Master of General psychology, University of Guilan

2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between existential concerns, incompleteness, and insight with dimensions of obsessive-compulsive disorder in female students. In this correlational research, the cluster sampling was employed to select 460 undergraduate female students of Guilan University in the academic year 2023-2024. The data was collected by Padua Inventory (1988), the Existential Concerns Questionnaire, Brown Incompleteness Scale, and Beck Cognitive Insight Scale, then analyzed by focal correlation analysis. Results revealed that there is a significant focal correlation between existential concerns, incompleteness, and insight with dimensions of obsessive-compulsive disorder in female students, and the correlation coefficient was 0.63 (p < 0.001). Also, 39% of changes in obsessive-compulsive disorder dimensions is predictable. The existential concerns (-0.64) and incompleteness (-0.53) had the highest focal weight, respectively. According to research results, existential concerns, incompleteness, and insight affect the obsessive-compulsive disorder dimensions in students and thereby increase its symptoms and manifestations. Existential concerns and incompleteness have the greatest effect on dimensions of students’ obsessive-compulsive disorder, so their effect on students’ psychological vulnerability can be prevented by necessary training and prevention.

Keywords

References

Abdi, R., Naseri, M., & Mirmohamadi, F. (2023). The relationship between alexithymia, cognitive avoidance, and distress tolerance with the dimensions of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms. Journal of Research in Psychopathology, 4(11), 1-9. doi:10.22098/jrp.2022.10442.1073
Abdolalizadeh, Y., Narimani, M., Kazemi, R., & Mosazadeh, T. (2022). Obsessive-compulsive disorder among teachers and its complications with other psychiatric symptoms. Journal of School Psychology, 11(2), 83-95. doi:10.22098/jsp.2022.1719
Acevedo, N., Rossell, S., Castle, D., Groves, C., Cook, M., McNeill, P., Olver, J., Meyer, D., Perera, T., & Bosanac, P. (2024). Clinical outcomes of deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder: Insight as a predictor of symptom changes. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci, 78(2), 131-141. doi:10.1111/pcn.13619
Beck, A. T., Baruch, E., Balter, J. M., Steer, R. A., & Warman, D. M. (2004). A new instrument for measuring insight: the Beck Cognitive Insight Scale. Schizophr Res, 68(2-3), 319-329. doi:10.1016/S0920-9964(03)00189-0
Boisseau, C. L., Sibrava, N. J., Garnaat, S. L., Mancebo, M. C., Eisen, J. L., & Rasmussen, S. A. (2018). The Brown Incompleteness Scale (BINCS): Measure development and initial evaluation. J Obsessive Compuls Relat Disord, 16, 66-71. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2017.12.008
Cervin, M., Perrin, S., Olsson, E., Claesdotter-Knutsson, E., & Lindvall, M. (2021). Involvement of fear, incompleteness, and disgust during symptoms of pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 30(2), 271-281. doi:10.1007/s00787-020-01514-7
Chavez-Baldini, U., Verweij, K. J. H., Bergamin, J., Luigjes, J., Mocking, R. J. T., Denys, D., Nieman, D. H., & Vulink, N. C. (2024). Existential concerns in psychopathology: a transdiagnostic network analysis existential concerns in psychopathology. Cogent Mental Health, 3(1), 1-23. doi:10.1080/28324765.2024.2313869
Chawla, S., Menzies, R. E., & Menzies, R. G. (2022). Existential concerns in OCD with aggressive and sexual obsessions. Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, 32, 100710. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2022.100710
Cohen, S. E., Zantvoord, J. B., Storosum, B. W. C., Mattila, T. K., Daams, J., Wezenberg, B., de Boer, A., & Denys, D. (2024). Influence of study characteristics, methodological rigour and publication bias on efficacy of pharmacotherapy in obsessive-compulsive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised, placebo-controlled trials. BMJ Ment Health, 27(1). doi:10.1136/bmjment-2023-300951
David, A. S. (2020). Insight and psychosis: the next 30 years. Br J Psychiatry, 217(3), 521-523. doi:10.1192/bjp.2019.217
Etkin, R. G., Bloch, M. H., & Lebowitz, E. R. (2024). Family accommodation: a diagnostic feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder? Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 24(2), 129–131. doi:10.1080/14737175.2024.2309239
Farouk, M., Nasr, M., Khalil, M., Dozebik, I., El Makawi, S., Fakher, W., & Ayoub, D. R. (2024). Autistic, schizotypal traits, and insight level in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder. Middle East Current Psychiatry, 31(1), 17. doi:10.1186/s43045-024-00402-z
Fradkin, I., Ludwig, C., Eldar, E., & Huppert, J. D. (2020). Doubting what you already know: Uncertainty regarding state transitions is associated with obsessive compulsive symptoms. PLoS computational biology, 16(2), e1007634. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007634
Gan, J., He, J., Fu, H., & Zhu, X. (2022). Association between obsession, compulsion, depression and insight in obsessive-compulsive disorder: a meta-analysis. Nord J Psychiatry, 76(7), 489-496. doi:10.1080/08039488.2021.2013532
Garson, G. D. (2022). Factor Analysis and Dimension Reduction in R. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003279693
Giusti, L., Mammarella, S., Salza, A., Del Vecchio, S., Ussorio, D., Casacchia, M., & Roncone, R. (2021). Predictors of academic performance during the covid-19 outbreak: impact of distance education on mental health, social cognition and memory abilities in an Italian university student sample. BMC Psychol, 9(1), 142. doi:10.1186/s40359-021-00649-9
Hassan, W., El Hayek, S., de Filippis, R., Eid, M., Hassan, S., & Shalbafan, M. (2024). Variations in obsessive compulsive disorder symptomatology across cultural dimensions. Front Psychiatry, 15, 1329748. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1329748
Horncastle, T., Ludlow, A. K., & Gutierrez, R. (2022). Not just right experiences and incompleteness as a predictor of Obsessive Compulsive symptoms in clinical and community samples: A meta-analysis. Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, 35, 100762. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2022.100762
Keshavarz, A., Barabari, A., & Hosseinzadeh, M. (2017). The Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of Padua Inventory in Nonclinical Population of Iran. Journal of Police Medicine,, 6(2), 117–125. doi:10.30505/6.2.117
Lahey, C. A., Fawcett, E. J., Pevie, N., Seim, R. B., & Fawcett, J. M. (2024). Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Medical School Curriculum and Textbook Review. J Med Educ Curric Dev, 11, 23821205241242262. doi:10.1177/23821205241242262
Lundström, L., Ivanova, E., Mataix-Cols, D., Flygare, O., Cervin, M., Rück, C., & Andersson, E. (2024). Incompleteness as a clinical characteristic and predictor of treatment outcome in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, 42, 100880. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2024.100880
Mahdavinoor, S. M. M., Teimouri, M., Mollaei, A., & Mahdavinoor, S. H. (2024). Psychometric evaluation of the persian version of Existential Concern Questionnaire (ECQ) in Iranian general population: a cross-sectional study. BMC Psychol, 12(1), 606. doi:10.1186/s40359-024-02090-0
Menzies, R. E., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2017). Death anxiety and its relationship with obsessive-compulsive disorder. J Abnorm Psychol, 126(4), 367-377. doi:10.1037/abn0000263
Menzies, R. E., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2021). The effect of mortality salience on bodily scanning behaviors in anxiety-related disorders. J Abnorm Psychol, 130(2), 141-151. doi:10.1037/abn0000577
Menzies, R. E., Zuccala, M., Sharpe, L., & Dar-Nimrod, I. (2020). Subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder and their relationship to death anxiety. Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, 27, 100572. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2020.100572
Mitchell, B. J., Al-Shawaf, L., & Coifman, K. G. (2024). In obsessive-compulsive disorder, autogenous and reactive obsessions are differentiated by disgust and mating strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 223, 112620. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2024.112620
Nepal, S., Liu, W., Pillai, A., Wang, W., Vojdanovski, V., Huckins, J. F., Rogers, C., Meyer, M. L., & Campbell, A. T. (2024). Capturing the College Experience: A Four-Year Mobile Sensing Study of Mental Health, Resilience and Behavior of College Students during the Pandemic. Proc ACM Interact Mob Wearable Ubiquitous Technol, 8(1), 1-37. doi:10.1145/3643501
Parchami Khoram, M., Shahidi, S., & Dehghani, M. (2022). Comparison of Frequency and Content of Internal Speech in People with Generalized Anxiety Disorders traits, obsessive-compulsive disorder traits and normal. Clinical Psychology Studies, 13(48), 31-56. doi:10.22054/jcps.2023.64426.2663
Selles, R. R., Best, J. R., Lu, C., Soreni, N., Farrell, L. J., Mathieu, S., & Stewart, S. E. (2023). Challenges of insight assessment in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder: Initial results and clinical considerations from a measure development study. Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, 36, 100774. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2022.100774
Shafaei, A., Jafari, E., & Moghadamzadeh, A. (2025). The Role of Perceived Stress, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Anxiety of Corona Disease in Predicting the Severity of Symptoms of Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder during the coronavirus pandemic. Journal of Research in Psychopathology, 6(2), 37-45. doi:10.22098/jrp.2024.14152.1214
Shams, G., Kaviani, H., Torkanbori, Y. E., Ebrahimkhani, N., & Manesh, A. A. (2010). A Study of Validity and Reliability of the Persian Version of the Padua Inventory-Washington State University Revision (PI-WSUR) in a Sample of Healthy Iranian Students. Advances in Cognitive Sciences. 12 (1):1-16 http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-77-en.html
Sica, C., Bottesi, G., Caudek, C., Marchetti, I., Orsucci, A., Palmieri, G., Righi, S., & Ghisi, M. (2019). Construct validity of “Not Just Right Experiences”: results from a picture-based assessment procedure. International journal of cognitive therapy, 12(4), 217-241. doi:10.1007/s41811-019-00054-6
Sica, C., Caudek, C., Colpizzi, I., Malerba, A., & Bottesi, G. (2024). Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and dimensional models of psychopathology: The contribution of “not just right experiences”. Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, 34(1), 100481. doi:10.1016/j.jbct.2023.11.002
Solaymani, M., Barzigar, M., & Alipour, O. (2016). Predicting marital satisfaction and general health of victims of chemical weapons with regards to spiritual intelligence and cognitive insight. Journal of Applied Psychology, 10(3), 39. dor:20.1001.1.20084331.1395.10.4.5.1
Solis Garcia, P., Real Castelao, S., & Barreiro-Collazo, A. (2024). Trends and Challenges in the Mental Health of University Students with Disabilities: A Systematic Review. Behav Sci (Basel), 14(2), 111. doi:10.3390/bs14020111
Stein, D. J., Costa, D. L., Lochner, C., Miguel, E. C., Reddy, Y. J., Shavitt, R. G., van den Heuvel, O. A., & Simpson, H. B. (2019). Obsessive–compulsive disorder. Nature reviews Disease primers, 5(1), 52. doi:10.1038/s41572-019-0102-3
van Bruggen, V., Ten Klooster, P., Westerhof, G., Vos, J., de Kleine, E., Bohlmeijer, E., & Glas, G. (2017). The Existential Concerns Questionnaire (ECQ)-Development and Initial Validation of a New Existential Anxiety Scale in a Nonclinical and Clinical Sample. J Clin Psychol, 73(12), 1692-1703. doi:10.1002/jclp.22474
Verin, R. E., Menzies, R. E., & Menzies, R. G. (2022). OCD, death anxiety, and attachment: what's love got to do with it? Behav Cogn Psychother, 50(2), 131-141. doi:10.1017/S135246582100045X
Weigold, I. K., Weigold, A., Ling, S., & Jang, M. (2020). College as a Growth Opportunity: Assessing Personal Growth Initiative and Self-determination Theory. Journal of happiness studies, 22(5), 2143-2163. doi:10.1007/s10902-020-00312-x
Yang, L., Chen, D., Zhang, X., Huang, F., Li, Z., & Yang, X. (2023). A comparison of 'not just right experiences' in obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and depressive disorders and non-clinical controls in Chin. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 31(1), e2916. doi:10.1002/cpp.2916
Yousefi, R., Arizi Samani, H., & Sadeghi, S. (2007). Assessment of cognitive insight among mental patients. Psychology. Journal of Psychology 11(44), 381–393.
Zhu, C., Huang, Y., Zhu, W., Jiang, X., Liang, Y., Tang, W., & Xu, Z. (2024). Comparison of Disease Severity, Anxiety and Depression in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Patients with Different Insight. Actas Esp Psiquiatr, 52(1), 10-18. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38454899

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics