Abstract
Although there is increasing attention for the interrelationship between obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), their shared characteristics in terms of childhood trait antecedents remain understudied. Perfectionism may be a viable candidate trait antecedent, given its role in the clinical manifestation of both OCPD and OCD in adulthood, and the evidence that perfectionism reflects a dispositional tendency observable from childhood onwards. However, little is known about childhood trajectories of perfectionism with prospective links to later OCPD versus OCD. Using latent growth curve modeling, this study explored the baseline and growth of childhood perfectionism in 485 community and referred children (55.5% girls, 7.17-14.78 years old, Mage = 10.74, SD = 1.50) across three waves. Adolescent OCPD traits and OCD symptoms were measured in Wave 4. An overall decreasing trend of perfectionism from childhood through adolescence appeared, without inter-individual differences in growth. Individual differences in baseline levels of childhood perfectionism were significant, and equally predicting adolescent OCPD and OCD outcomes. At a more specific level, childhood perfectionism predicted most strongly the rigid perfectionism component of OCPD, and the orderliness/cleanliness/perfectionism and obsession domain of OCD. This demonstrates the value of childhood perfectionism for understanding differential outcomes of adolescent OCPD traits and OCD symptoms.
Highlights
The current study aimed to investigate the baseline and growth of childhood Dimensional Personality Symptom Item Pool (DIPSI) perfectionism in relation to obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) traits and obsessive– compulsive disorder (OCD) symptomatology in adolescence
We modeled mean levels and individual differences in starting points and growth rates of DIPSI perfectionism
No significant individual differences were observed in the slope of childhood DIPSI perfectionism decrease among the participants in the present data, but significant individual differences in starting positions of childhood DIPSI perfectionism were found and were used to predict the later OCPD and OCD outcomes
Summary
The present study investigated the baseline, growth and outcomes of childhood perfectionism. The outcomes of these baseline trajectories regarding OCPD traits and OCD symptoms in adolescence were examined. The second research aim was to investigate to what extent childhood perfectionism is a shared versus a unique predictor for OCPD traits and OCD symptoms, thereby exploring the multifinality principle (Cicchetti & Rogosch, 1996). We expected that childhood perfectionism would predict both OCPD traits and OCD symptoms (Hypothesis 2). We expected the strongest predictions for the OCPD rigid perfectionism trait, the OCD order/ clean/perfect domain (compared to the obsessive and compulsive domains), and the OCD perfectionism facet (compared to the other nine facets) because of their conceptual similarity to the DIPSI perfectionism predictor (Hypothesis 3)
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