Relationship between disgust propensity and contamination obsessive-compulsive symptoms : the mediating role of information processing bias

Abstract EN

Background : Early studies showed that disgust contributes to developing the contamination obsessive-compulsive disorder (COCD) and fear of contamination.

Despite considering disgust to explain the fear of contamination as a symptom of C-OCD, there are few studies on the mediating role of information processing bias (IPB) in the relationship between disgust propensity (DP) and the fear of contamination.

Objectives : The current study aimed at exploring the mediating role of IPB between DP and fear of contamination.

Methods: The current descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 386 students selected by cluster sampling method.

The employed tools were disgust propensity and sensitivity scale-revised (DPSS-R), the Padua inventory (PI), obsessive beliefs questionnaire (OBQ), and spatial cueing task.

Data were analyzed with Amos-22 software.

Bootstrap methods were used to analyze the mediating role.

Results : Results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that the proposed model had a good fitness [GFI (goodness of fit index), TLI (the Tucker-Lewis index), and CFI (comparative fit index) > 0.95 and RMSEA (root mean square error of approximation) = 0.03].

The results showed that the relationship between DP and fear of contamination was mediated by IPB.

Conclusions : Results indicated the impact of disgust propensity on fear of contamination through information processing.

These findings emphasized that information processing is essential to explain C-OCD.